Turn of the Tides
by Captiosus
Summary: After the extinction of the Flood, the Chief and company find themselves in a new world, where the rules have changed and magic is real. New allies, new enemies, and more bloodshed than you can shake a stick at! Halo x Inheritance Cycle
1. Out of the Frying Pan

Turn of the tides Ch1: Out of the frying pan…

Authors note: Greetings! Im not much for words when it comes to things like this so I will just say it. Tronjheim is the mountain inside a mountain instead of that shit they pulled in the movie. Thought speech is denoted by italicized text in quotation marks. Also , everything, unless otherwise specified, is property of their respective parties. Thank you and enjoy.

_On Alpha B Halo, shortly after the destruction of High Charity..._

The Master Chief moved silently and swiftly through the massive hallway, checking around corners and keeping to the shadows, not making a whisper despite being encased in a half-ton suit of armor. Behind him, Thel 'Vadam, also known as the Arbiter, was sweeping the area and checking for threats, his silence granted from years of experience. The Gravemind would certainly know that they were headed for the Control Room on the new Halo, and would certainly try and stop them from setting it off.

They came to a corner and waited for Sergeant Johnson and Commander Keys to catch up. As the two waited, a loud crash and screech of metal sounded from the door that led to the control room. The Chief and Arbiter snapped their weapons up towards the door, but it was just a repair drone dropping a metal spar and getting crushed under it. They lowered their weapons as Keys and Johnson ran by, and joined them down the hallway at the door.

"Cortana, can you get this door open?" Keys asked. "Yes, but it will take a moment." The disembodied voice of the AI replied, coming from the external speakers on the Spartan's helmet.

A loud bang and the telltale groans of the Flood down at the end of the hallway said they didn't have the time they needed. "We don't have a moment," The Chief crouched down and opened fire with his pistol, watching as the 35mm high explosive slugs hit their targets and blew them apart, sending mottled yellow and green limbs flying everywhere, propelled from the shock wave created by the supersonic passage of the bullet. But for every combat form he shot, another 3 took its place. 'Vadam added in with his carbine, each green bolt finding multiple targets and punching holes through the mass of dead flesh at the end of the hallway. With a beep, the Arbiter's carbine ran dry, and he pulled the fuel rod gun off his back, fully intending on bringing a rain of green death down on the Flood. "Hurry construct! We cannot hold against the Parasite!"

"I'm going I'm going," Cortana said exasperatedly. With a groan, the 10 ton door began to open, and then came to a halt. "Door's open." "About time," Johnson growled. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to tango with these walking freaks again."

They all ran inside, and with another groan, the door closed and locked, sealing the Flood on the other side.

The control room was a vast space, but different from the last time John was in the Alpha Halo room. Instead of solid walls, many were missing their paneling, exposing the circuitry within. The bridge was different too. Instead, the ring around the massive hologram of the Ark was bare of glass, with only the path between the door and the console having the original glass on it. The console itself was lit up, with letters of the Forerunner language scrolling rapidly by. They walked up to this holographic panel, and as they did, an all too familiar humming was heard.

"God damn-it I thought that little bastard was somewhere else on the ring," Johnson growled

"On the contrary, I have been waiting for your arrival, Reclaimers." 343 Guilty Spark, the former monitor of Alpha Halo, floated down from the ceiling to come to a stop before them, pulsing with every word he spoke. "In normal circumstances, I would have suggested that the ring is to be activated to deal with the Flood. However, in this situation, protocol does not have anything that can even compare to this situation, and as such, I am lost."

"Yeah well, our plan was to get in here, set off the ring, and then get the hell out of here," Johnson said, taking a pull on his cigar and flicking the ashes onto the glass. Cortana added, "Since this ring is not attached to the Array and every indication that the Flood is here on the Ark and Halo, if we trigger this ring, even though it will result in the destruction of the ring, it will also result in the extinction of the Flood."

"Extinction of the Flood… my creators tried so hard to achieve that goal, but ultimately failed as the previous Gravemind and Medicant Bias hammered our own forces," Spark recounted. "We used the Array as a last ditch attempt to destroy the Flood, but that attempt was ultimately futile. For over hundred thousand years I was on that ring, running about my duties, knowing that the attempt failed and that sooner or later the Flood would be released again, and then there would be nothing to stop them."

The Monitor paused, before continuing. "When you Reclaimers arrived on the ring along with the others, I thought the Flood would finally be contained and destroyed. But then it was released, and I could not risk their escape into the galaxy again. That is why I sought to trigger the first installation. That is why, even though I am supposed to get this installation as a replacement for the previous one, the threat of the Flood means we must activate this ring. And with collateral kept to a minimum, I do believe you will agree with me in this."

"That's what we came for, light-bulb. We didn't make this trip for our health." Johnson growled before finishing off his cigar and tossing the unburnt nub over the edge. "I am personally tired of these walking freaks, and would like more than anyone to see them get wiped out. I say light this candle and get the hell out."

The others muttered their agreement, and Keys sighed. "Well, its decided. But how are we going to activate it? We don't have the Index."

The master chief had walked over to the console and had already transferred Cortana to the Core during the Monitor's monologue, and with a hiss of static, Cortana appeared. She snapped her fingers, and with a pop the Index came into existence in her hand. "Oh, you mean this? I kept it as a memento from the first Halo. If this ring and the first one are identical, or at least reasonably close, this Index should activate this ring."

The Monitor nodded, and then said. "Do it. I cannot transport you out of here due to the shielding this room has, but once we reach the outside of this building, I will be able to transport you to your ship so we may leave."

_BANG!_

Everyone snapped around to the door, which now had one hell of a dent in it. "What was that?" Keys asked.

"The Parasite. It seems they know our intentions." The Arbiter murmured. He checked the charge on his energy sword, and then unslung his borrowed shotgun and pumped it. The others did the same, Keys readying a Brute Spiker, Johnson a Spartan laser, and the Chief a rocket launcher. Another loud bang came from the door, and the dent got significantly bigger.

"_YOU SHALL NOT ESCAPE ALIVE!"_ Gravemind's telepathic roar blasted through their minds, stunning and disorienting them. "Well, I do believe this is going to be harder than expected." Johnson pulled out another cigar and lit it using the last of the charge in his plasma pistol. The monitor shifted from a cool blue to a bloody crimson and, tapping into the Ring's communication system, responded "The Flood shall be no more! You have lost!"

Gravemind began laughing, a chilling sound that sent tremors up Keys' spine, reminded Johnson of his hell on Halo, and unnerved the normally unshakeable Arbiter and Chief. "And tell me, little Monitor, what makes you think you have won?" He asked, completely dropping the iambic pentameter he normally spoke in.

Cortana casually dropped the Index into the console and then replied, venom in her voice. "How about this?"

The laughter immediately ceased, and was replaced with a psychic howl of fury. The pounding against the door redoubled in its strength, and with a screech of metal, the entire door was ripped free of its mount and blasted into the control room, closely followed by an endless tide of Flood Combat forms.

Everyone opened fire, spraying rockets, bullets, and energy beams downrange, turning the Flood into charred and pulped husks. The Monitor shouted something in another language before letting loose streams of brilliant orange light and projecting a force-field to knock the Flood back. The orange beams were like a scythe, cutting down combat forms and burning any who still stood.

"Chief, time to go!" Cortana shouted over the noise. With a brief flicker of lightning, she jumped back into his armor, and as she did a deep rumbling began to sound underneath the control room. A second later a brilliant white shaft of energy shot up from the abyss, through the hologram of Halo, and out through the roof, disrupting the anti-gravity support holding the platform up. Everyone immediately took this as their cue to run for it, and run they did, mowing down anything that moved. As they made it up to the door and began mopping up the remaining Flood forms, everyone picked up a broadcast coming from _Forward Unto Dawn_.

"This is to all allied forces within the area. The _Dawn _and Fireteam Bravo are under attack from Flood and are trying to escape. All forces are requested to either help beat the Flood back or destroy the ship. Repeat, we are under attack and need assistance."

Cortana didn't waste time. "This is Sierra-117 calling Fireteam Bravo. We hear your signal and are on our way. Stand by." "A Spartan? God damn, I'd be glad to have you help us fight off these freaks. Get to an open area and drop a nav-beacon, we will come and pick you up." Gunfire and explosions abruptly sounded over the radio, along with cursing from the marine on the other end of the line.

They were nearly outside when they ran into a small company of Sangheili, Unngoy, and Mgalekgolo fighting for their lives outside the entrance of the Control Room. "Arbiter!" One of the Unngoy called to them as they ran out. "The parasite is everywhere!" It squealed. One of the Mgalekgolo turned to the Arbiter and rumbled, "We cannot survive here, we must escape."

The Arbiter turned to the Monitor and said, "Get us all to the human ship." The Monitor paused, and then said, "Stand by, I have to re-calibrate the local transportation network to account for the disruption caused by the firing sequence." Cortana tapped the local network and examined the fluctuations, and then suddenly said, "I know the solution. These fluctuations are similar to what I had to compensate for when jumping from within the gravity well of Threshold. A few simple alterations and I should have the solution within seconds... done." The monitor swung around and looked at Master Chief. "Impressive, construct. For someone who has a fraction the processing capability of one of my kind to pull something like that off, very impressive indeed. Give me the equations and I will get us out of here." A glowing green globe sizzled by the AIr, who whipped around and blasted the Flood form which had shot at him.

"Alright, the equations are in." The Monitor paused as it processed the massive amount of information needed to move 22 individuals 17 miles up-spin. Gold rings streamed around the soldiers, and with a flash, they vanished.

And reappeared in the middle of hell. Plasma bolts and bullets flashed by the group from the attacking Flood, and they immediately took cover behind the nearest barricade. One of the Mgalekgolo turned and loosed a lethal green stream of burning radioactive goo at the flood and was rewarded with an inferno as the Flood forces went up in flames. The other Mgalekgolo opted for the projectile shot, which arced over the Flood and landed in their midst, sending burning yellow flesh flying everywhere.

"God damn its good to see you guys," one of the Marines defending the Dawn shouted to them. "Stow it Marine. We are getting out of here, cause this firecracker's been lit and I dont want to be here when it blows," grunted Johnson as he prepped a SPNKr rocket launcher. "Oh hell yeah I'll drink to that!" one of the other marines whooped, before taking a plasma bolt to the face and falling, screaming in agony. The Flood took this opportunity to run forward and attack with renewed vigor, forcing everyone back to the lower part of the ship. Johnson finally got the rocket launcher ready and fired. With a whoosh of rocket exhaust, the high explosive warhead lanced forward, eager to meet its prey and rip it apart. The missile hit the first Flood form in the attack wave and passed clean through without stopping before exploding behind it and sending more Combat Forms flying everywhere. "Everyone onboard!" Cortana called over their headsets, and they needed no second prompts. Everyone dashed aboard the ship, and as soon as they were all on, Cortana floored it.

* * *

Eragon braced himself against the thick walls of the dragon hold, waiting for the ground-quake to go away. They had been hitting for several days now, and they were slowly getting more and more powerful with each one that hit. Reports had also been coming in of huge cracks and fissures in the ground around Tronjheim, each one pointed almost exactly at the great mountain-city, except for one that went all the way round the base.

"What do you make of it Saphira?" Eragon didn't need to have to speak it out loud, his connection to the sapphire dragon saw to that. Still, he felt it was necessary he voice his thoughts, as these quakes were not natural. The dragon tentatively sniffed the air using her tongue before saying, "_I feel great change coming to this world. This change will not be wrought by our hands, but by newcomers and beings with devastating power at their disposal. I have spoken to Arya about this, she senses it too. Whatever is coming, it will choose this city as its arrival point. I just pray whatever comes, it is friendly to our cause."_

Eragon was about to respond when Orik, his dwarvish companion in the city, came up to him, slightly out of breath. "You alright Orik?" The Dwarf nodded his head before saying, "We found something down in the armory that I think you and Saphira might like, and we have found some appropriate armor for you as well. Come, we must get you ready, for the Urgals will be here soon." Eragon nodded while Saphira got up and stretched, her entire 30-foot length trembling as she did so. When she was done she extended her foreleg, allowing Eragon to jump up to her back and strap himself in. "Sure you don't want to ride down as well Orik? It's a long walk."

The dwarf shook his head, beard flapping slightly. "No my friend, flying is not for dwarves. I will take the slide back down instead."

"Suit yourself," Eragon said, before Saphira spread her wings and jumped off the top, beginning the long glide down to the bottom of the city. As they flew, another tremor hit the city, and this time it was accompanied by a huge cracking and grinding noise, so loud it shattered dozens of the mighty icicles hanging above them, raining ice down upon the Rider. Saphira was already moving through, rolling and dodging the ice chunks as if they were little more than a minor inconvenience, when each chunk was the size of a horse and if one hit it would kill both of them instantly.

After a few tense seconds, the storm of ice finished falling, and both of the noticed and extremely bright light on the other side of the hollow mountain. "What the blazes is that?" Eragon shouted over the continuing quake and subsequent thrashings of the rock and stone. "_I do not know, it opened while I was still avoiding the ice. It can't be the work of the Urgals though, they would not be that obvious in an attack."_

They were interrupted when Arya contacted them and said, "_Eragon, word has spread that one of the fissures is now emitting vast amounts of light. Can you check it out?"_ Eragon blushed slightly as he thought of the elf before replying, "_Me and Saphira noticed it after the ice stopped pelting us. We are about to go investigate now. Any injuries from the quake?"_

Arya looked around at the fallen debris and the damage it had done to both life and limb. "_Yes many, with more than a few dead. These quakes are not a product of magic. Durza is not that powerful, and Galbatorix is reported to still be in Uru'Baen. We must figure out the source of these quakes and stop it before more lives are claimed before the battle."_

Eragon was puzzled about this. Unnatural quakes? That was more than a little odd to him, and he would think about it later, but first he had a fissure to investigate.

"_This is troubling, young one. If the forces of evil are not the cause of this, nor are the forces of nature, that what can cause it? The dwarves said that this mountain has been inactive for thousands of years, I find it odd that it would start acting up now."_ Saphira glanced over her shoulder at Eragon, who looked as troubled as she was. "Well, we wont know until we get over there to the fissure and see for ourselves."

Saphira nodded and began to fly towards the glowing crack in the ground, pure white light spilling from it as water would spill from an overflowing bucket. They made a pass directly over the fissure, with Eragon leaning over and glancing down into the crack, casting a spell to shield his eyes from the bright light. What he saw stunned him.

Huge plates of metal were shifting; moving so fluidly it seemed surreal. The light itself was coming from thin strips and patches, almost impossibly bright for objects so thin. "_Eragon,"_ he nearly jumped out of the saddle as Arya contacted him again. "_What is it? You sound like you've seen something big."_

"_I have,"_ replied the elf. "_All of the fissures around the city are emitting light, including the ring surrounding the city. To add to that we are hearing screeches of what sounds like metal against metal, but the dwarves say they have nothing that can make that kind of noise. There is something big underneath Tronjheim, and whatever it is it's not in the local archives. Have you seen anything that might be of importance?"_

Eragon glanced back down into the fissure, looking at the shifting metal plates in awe that something that big could move that quickly and quietly. "_Yeah. In the fissure over here I'm seeing what looks like huge plates of metal shifting and moving around. When I say huge, I mean_ huge." He sent her a mental image of what he was seeing, and for several moments Arya did not respond.

"_Eragon!"_ Saphira called to him with a tone of urgency in her voice. "_The Urgals! They used the quakes to mask their arriva1 and are about to attack!"_ Below them, sure enough, was a medium sized army of Urgals, mostly Kull, and they were streaming out of holes in the ground and running full tilt towards the city. "_Oh damn. ARYA! WE GOT COMPANY!"_ Saphira began pumping her wings to get back to the city to get Eragon armored up and armed so he could fight. Another voice responded, and Eragon immediately knew it came from one of the twins. He recoiled at the thought of those two speaking to him, but he let them do it. "_Greetings rider. We acknowledge that the Urgals are inside the mountain. Ajihad wishes that you return immediately so that you may get the equipment you and your dragon need for the fight."_

Eragon sighed, before replying, _"We are on our way back. And my god, there are thousands of them"_

Without warning, a massive ground quake hit, ten times more powerful than anything that had hit before. The larger icicles that resisted the previous quakes snapped off, some of them thirty feet in diameter and hundreds long. Eragon and Saphira again dodged the icicles, and then were blinded as the fissures surrounding the city flared brighter than the sun.

With a sudden roar of shifting rocks, the entire city of Tronjheim simply _dropped._ Eragon watched in shock as the city rapidly descended down a brightly lit shaft until it was down at the bottom nearly a thousand feet down, and like Eragon said, there were large shifting pieces of metal under the mountain in the cracks.

What happened next would be burned into the memories of everyone in the city forever. The mountain itself, Farthen Dûr was opening up, while at the same time the metal plates settled over the city, completely covering it. The mountain had split into 8 massive segments, each one miles long, yet moving as if they were being pulled by giants. The ground around the city suddenly brightened a thousand-fold, and without warning a massive shock-wave hit Eragon and Saphira, throwing them about and deafening them from the force of the blast. From the floor of the mountain, 16 colossal panels began to lift off, each one glowing brightly on the bottom and revealing that the machine, for that is what it was, went under the entire extinct volcano.

The 8 segments that used to be Farthen Dûr opened well past the vertical, and finally stopped with all panels facing outward, turning the massive volcanic cone into a stone flower almost twenty miles across. The 16 panels had stopped too, but they were vertical. For a moment, everything was dead quiet, the approaching army of Urgals having retreated to the gap between the panels and the segments, the only level ground in the area. Then something began to happen. They noticed that the glowing panels surrounding and encasing the city were glowing brightly. Even though they were several hundred feet up, Saphira and Eragon could both hear something extremely powerful winding up, rising from a deep subsonic rumble that shook their bones even in the sky to a high pitched whine, not quite painful to the ears, but still more than enough to get them ringing.

As the noise reached a fever pitch, a huge beam of white light shot up from the peak of the encased city. This beam was too blinding to look at, but Eragon and Saphira could see what was coming next. The 16 panels were absolutely encased in the same strange light that was streaming up from the center of it all, and as they continued to watch in awe, all 16 panels discharged their energy towards the main beam. There was an ungodly brilliant flash of light, a noise like ripping combined with water rapidly draining out of a bucket, a noise that sounded like a portal to hell had opened. When they looked again after the light faded, they realized just how close to the truth that might be.

A huge black globe, well over several thousand feet across, hung suspended over the open cone of the volcano, even as Tronjheim began rising out of the hole it sunk into. It seemed that the 16 panels could provide enough energy to maintain this without having to keep the main beam going.

As panicked telepathic voices came up from the city asking them just what the hell happened, the only thing that Eragon and Saphira could think about was what was going to happen next. Little did they know, the portal signaled the end of one age, and the rise of a new one.

* * *

"The ring has entered its final firing phase!" The Monitor cried out over the ship intercom. He was down in engineering, dumping as much power as he could from his own circuitry into the engines so they could get the hell out of here.

On the bridge, Johnson nonchalantly lit another cigar, in full defiance of having a combustible material on the command deck of a UNSC ship, and said, "Well, I don't know about you, but I am quite eager to get back home and get drunk off my ass. I'm getting too old for this shit."

"We all want to get home Johnson, we just have to outrun the shock-wave of the ring first" Keys hissed at him as she jockeyed 3 stations from her command seat. "Monitor, ring status?" Keys wanted to know exactly when their time had run out, especially considering they still hadn't made it to the portal.

The response that came back was completely unexpected. "The ring firing sequence seems to have been stalled by something… by my creators!" the AI exclaimed. "Its Offensive Bias doing it. He's buying us time to- wait… Oh no."

"What is it monitor?" Keys asked the AI.

"The portal is becoming unstable due to ring activity. To make things simple, it will most likely not go back to your world anymore. My creators had discovered how to cross between parallel universes, and had spread their knowledge and technological wealth through these universes. That portal" with a simple flick, one of the displays focused on the portal, "Could lead anywhere."

"It's worth the risk," 'Vadam said in his deep voice. "It would be much better to go to another universe and live out the rest of our days on a world that can support us rather than get caught in the shock-wave of the Ring."

The Master Chief was about to add his comment when Spark yelled, "The ring has detonated! Shockwave impact in 17 seconds!"

"Cortana, h-" "Sixteen seconds" The AI cut through already knowing the question beforehand.

"This one is going to be close" Johnson chuckled, knowing that once again, he was going to cheat death by the hide of his ass.

The _Dawn_ surged forward as the Monitor diverted every scrap of power into the engines, throwing everyone back into their seats. Cortana put the countdown until the blast hit them and the ETA to the portal up on the screen and began counting down. "Ten"

"Nine" the ship began to rumble slightly as the first whispers of the shock hit them

"Eight" The marines and remaining crew began to pray

"Seven" beads of sweat began to form on Keys' head

"Six" the rumbling had intensified into a bone-shaking roar

"Five" "OH GOD, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE" Came from a panicking marine, closely followed by a loud slap

"Four" Keys groaned from the G forces as the ship continued to leap forward

"Three" Johnson leaned back and took a long deep pull on the cigar

"Two" The ship began to screech with stress as the concussive part of the blast hit

"One"

With a fraction of a second to spare before the brain-frying part of the blast struck without mercy, the _Dawn_ blew through the portal.

* * *

"_Eragon…"_ Saphira had been watching the portal, and she noticed something near the west side of it.

"_What is it Saphira?"_ Eragon followed her mental prompting and saw… _something_ come flying out of the portal. It was fairly large, about half a mile long, and was crafted of a dark metal. Flames could be seen coming out of nozzles at the back, and it moved at an impossible speed for an object so large. There were obvious signs of damage too, with the most obvious sign being intense scorching covering the back half of the thing, as well as fires and large holes blown in the thick skin of the object. The object rotated and rocketed upward, using gravity and drag to slow its incredible velocity down.

That's when all hell broke loose. The intense white glow from beneath Eragon from the portal machine suddenly dimmed and went out with the sound of something winding down. The panels surrounding the machine wavered for a moment, and then, with a titanic crashing noise, came back down one after another, some of the plates breaking in pieces and breaking with loud reports. The portal, robbed of its power source, collapsed on itself with a howl of hurricane force winds, and released a visible shock-wave in the air as it disintegrated. Eragon covered his ears in an attempt to shield them from the noise, but Saphira had no respite, and howled in agony as her eardrums were destroyed. "_Saphira's been injured!" _he called down to Arya, but there was no response. Eragon looked up and noticed the thing that came out of the portal was several miles high, and was coming back down, the thin contrail behind it revealing that it was in a controlled spiral.

"_Eragon, things are bad down here. The city's drop and return to the top did a very large amount of damage and injured many people. And whatever caused that racket blew out almost everyone's eardrums and was loud enough to shatter some of the stonework._

"_It was a portal machine,"_ Eragon sent back. "_The whole blasted mountain was this machine, and it opened a portal. Whether it was activated somewhere else or it was done here, it doesn't change one fact. Something came through, something not natural, and something big."_ he sent Arya the mental image of the thing that came flying out of the portal, and for several minutes, she didn't respond.

Eragon in the meantime used the opportunity to land and heal the damage done to Saphira's ears. When he dismounted and examined her ears, he was dismayed at the severity of the damage.

A thin crimson stream of blood dribbled from both ears, with small fragments of flesh mixed in, all that remained of her eardrums. The eardrums he could fix, but the internal bleeding would be much harder, and would have to wait. The Urgals nearby, at least the survivors, had noticed them, and were charging forwards to eagerly get first crack at the Rider and his dragon.

Saphira's response to the Urgal threat was a forty foot long jet of blue-white flame, instantly incinerating the first to reach them. The other Urgals let loose roars of fury at their fallen comrade, and without warning, Eragon was in for the fight of his life.

He drew his sword and immediately made for the first Kull, wielding a wicked double axe, and nimbly dodged to the side just as the blade came slamming down, embedding itself in the dirt. Eragon used this opportunity to cleave the head from the shoulders of that Urgal before turning and intercepting the short sword of the next Urgal, turning it aside and swinging upward, driving Zar'roc into the skull from the jaw up, before twisting and turning to the next Urgal, who was about to cleave him in two with another axe. Not having time to block it, Eragon shouted, "Jierda!", focusing the magic on the head of the axe. The blade exploded, showering metal everywhere, but the force of the magic had done as intended, and allowed Eragon the time to turn the now useless handle of the axe to the side and thrust Zar'roc into the Kull's gut, the crimson blade seemingly shimmering with glee at the bloodshed.

Saphira in the meantime was using her new-found ability to breathe fire to devastating effect, incinerating the dozens of Kull who swarmed her. But there were simply too many, and unprotected she began taking severe injuries, the first of which was an axe to the right rear haunch. Several spears to the wings were next, pricking holes in them and causing Saphira to roar in pain. The offending Urgals suddenly found themselves on fire as Saphira proceeded to incinerate them with another jet of flame.

"_We are under attack and need help NOW!"_ Eragon didn't bother picking a target within the city, he just pointed his thoughts in that direction and sent it on its way. Little did he know that help was coming from an unexpected direction.

* * *

"_We are under attack and need help NOW!"_ a voice was heard in their heads as they circled over the area.

"What the hell? I could have just sworn I heard someone say they were under attack." Johnson exhaled the cigar smoke. They had made it, although barely. The energy wave from the Halo detonation had caught the back third of the ship and had killed several crew-members, thankfully no one important or critical to the running of the ship.

'Vadam turned to Johnson and said, "I heard it too. I do not believe it was the Parasite. Its mind-speech is not like that. This almost sounded like a human."

"A human with telepathy?" Keys mused. It wasn't impossible though. They are in another universe and as such the rules of their own no longer apply here, so it was entirely possible that if there was a living human down there, they could have telepathy.

One of the crew brought up from the lower decks manning the sensor console paused, and then said, "Ma'am? You might want to see this."

The main display switched to one of the exterior cameras, which panned around and pointed to a flat area on the other side of the city, where a boy in his teens fighting of a large number of huge bipedal beasts and…

"Oh my god, is that a _dragon?_" Keys couldn't believe her eyes.

Sure enough, there was a large blue dragon fighting the creatures beside the boy, and as they watched, the dragon let loose a blue jet of fire, burning several of the creatures.

The Chief leaned forward and examined the pair, and quickly stated the obvious. "That kid and the dragon are about to be overrun, and even if the city on the ground could get reinforcements on the move, those two will be dead by the time backup has arrived." "Indeed," the Arbiter added. "That human may be one of the most skilled I have seen with a blade, but the odds are against him." The John and 'Vadam turned to each other, and Keys immediately knew what they wanted to do. "I can't allow it you two. We don't know whether they are hostile or not, and I have to put the safety of my crew before him. Request denied."

"With all due respect ma'am," Johnson pulled on the cigar again, savoring the flavor. "If we help that kid, it's likely we will get some of the assistance we need, plus some allies for the road ahead. And if there are creatures like that in this world, then who knows what else is here, so intel on what precisely we are dealing with will be a bonus. And if anything, we need the food. I'm not quite content to live the rest of my days on old MRE's and recycled water." The John and 'Vadam, as well as several of the crew on the bridge nodded in agreement. Keys sighed, knowing that they were unfortunately right.

Cortana was about to add her own opinion when sensors detected a large EM flare coming in the direction of the fight, and it was centered on the boy. A fraction of a second after the flare, his sword ignited and began setting the monsters on fire as he hacked away at them. "Uhhh guys? If dragons and telepathic humans weren't enough, if this data is correct, there is also magic as well."

Keys immediately knew that the rules of the game had changed, and nodded to 'Vadam and John. "Request granted."

* * *

Eragon was exhausted, and wounded badly. A large gash in his right arm made it difficult to raise his shield to block strikes from the Urgals. There were several small cuts on his face and arms where arrows and short swords narrowly missed him, and he could have sworn he sprained his right ankle. Saphira wasn't better off, with one wing in complete tatters, victim of spears. Her tail had been shortened by a foot and a half due to an Urgal getting off a lucky attack on her rear, and her right haunch was all but dead. They had successfully managed to beat back 4 successive waves of Urgals, but he knew that if he didn't get reinforcements before the next wave hit, he and Saphira would die. The thought of getting killed by Urgals simply because he didn't have enough strength to maintain the slaughter drove him to keep fighting, taking down the stragglers from the last wave in bloody sprays of blood and gore.

"_Eragon, here they come!"_ Saphira stood behind him and let loose a defiant roar, determined to not go down without one hell of a fight. The Urgals charged on unfazed, and as the first of them arrived, so did his reinforcements.

The first Urgals had made it to the pair when a large silver streak screamed out of nowhere, went deep into their ranks, and exploded. Eragon staggered, stunned from the force of the biggest explosion he had seen. The Urgals unfortunate enough to get caught in the blast disintegrated, their burning remains flying everywhere. Those further away from the blast had a much worse fate. The concussion from the blast proceeded to "jellify" their flesh, giving them all an extremely painful death as their organs melted into one another.

When Eragon looked up again, he couldn't believe what he saw. Standing about 15 feet away were 2 of the strangest beings that he had ever seen. One of them could be described as a man in strange armor, but there the similarity ended. For one, this being stood over 8 feet high, which was far taller than any normal human. The armor was thick, angular, and a ghostly iridescent green, and moved almost impossibly fluidly, as if it were as quicksilver. A gold faceplate hid the features of the being inside the suit, but Eragon knew this wasn't a magical creation like a golem, because he could sense the person inside, hard and focused like a well forged sword, with a mental armor unlike anything he had ever felt. In this being's hands was a large, tube-like object, and as he watched, the man turned and did something to it. With a whoosh, another silver streak lanced on a column of flame out of the tube, raced for the approaching Urgal scout group, and blew them to hell.

It was the other being that really got his attention though. It wasn't human at all, nor any other creature, magical or otherwise. It also stood 8 feet tall, and was clad in strange silver armor, covered in intricate designs and unquestionably old. The creature had dark skin-like hide, and under it rippled many powerful muscles, no doubt incredibly strong. Its head and neck were almost blended together, and its mouth consisted of 4 mandibles around a large closed hole. Its eyes were almost serpent-like, with a thin slit surrounded by gold. These eyes carried wisdom well beyond Eragon, and of things best left unmentioned. Eragon's eyes wandered down to the being's chest and saw a massive scar that looked like it was a branding, and must have been exceedingly painful. Its legs, he noticed, were double jointed, like a cat or dog, and Eragon had no doubt that in a full sprint this being would easily outrun most creatures without trouble. In its hand, a silvery handle was grasped, and with a loud pop, a blazing white blade came to life. The being ran towards Eragon and jumped over him, coming down with a thump on the other side and continuing to charge towards the Urgals.

One of the survivors noticed the new challenger and hurled its axe at the creature with the blade. The newcomer let the axe hit, and a glowing silver barrier of some kind flared to life, deflecting the axe away and leaving the being unharmed. A moment later, the white blade had completely cut all the way through the Urgal, the smell of burning flesh reaching Eragon's nose as the white-hot blade cauterized the injury. The upper and lower halves of the Urgal fell to the ground, where the being proceeded to crush it under its weight.

The green-armored human had switched to a smaller weapon, silver in appearance, and looked like a T with the back and lower parts cut off. This weapon let loose extremely loud bangs, and with each one, another Urgal's skull exploded. Kull, normal Urgals, it didn't matter. Anything which met this being's weapon was blown apart from the inside out.

After barely 30 seconds of slaughter, the rest of the wave was gone, either chopped up into burning remains or blown to steaming bits. Eragon was over by Saphira and was tending to her injuries as best as he could, and was hoping the two beings which had effortlessly destroyed all the Urgals would not attack him next. The one in the green armor moved towards him, weapon pointed downward, and before either the being or Eragon could do anything, Saphira let loose a vicious hiss at it. The being stopped, apparently deciding what to do. Eragon watched it, while Saphira growled."_These beings reek of death!"_

Eragon turned to her and said "_Well, they did just destroy all the Urgals. I would expect them to reek of death._"

Saphira stopped growling and turned to him. "_Its not the recent death that I smell on them. It's the kind of death that lingers only after tens of thousands of lives taken. It's the kind that lingers after a very long and brutal war."_

Without warning, the green being raised its hands to its head, and began fiddling with something there. After a moment, there was a loud hiss as the seal was removed, and a crackling storm of gold electricity all over its armor as a similar protective barrier went down. It gripped its helmet, twisted slightly, and then pulled it off. What greeted Eragon was a person, but not like any person he had ever seen. The man inside was very pale, like he hadn't seen the sun in years. His face was roughly chiseled, and had its fair share of scars, some reaching up into his short brown hair. His eyes were a piercing emerald hue, and Eragon saw a merciless killer in those eyes, someone who would ravage the enemy without hesitation, and someone who had seen many evils and conquered them.

For a moment this person studied him, before asking, "Are you alright?"

Eragon quickly examined his injuries before replying, "I'll live. My dragon though needs help."

Saphira was panting hard now, and was in intense pain from her injuries. The axe which nailed her right haunch was still embedded in it, and her tail was bleeding freely. Her right wing was the worst injury though, the limb having taken a near direct hit from a short sword, almost completely cutting it off, with but a few tatters of flesh and sinew holding it on. This wound also bleed freely.

The human in the green armor looked at Saphira, who growled at him and said, "_Don't come any closer human. You reek of death and destruction!"_

The human raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "I'm a soldier who just got done fighting a 2 front war that claimed untold billions of lives on both sides and saw the destruction of a alien species called the Flood and the shattering of a union of alien races known as the Covenant, a war which lasted for 33 years. During that time I was deployed to fight off the Covenant wherever they might have been, and although even I don't know the true numbers, I have taken millions myself. I would be honestly surprised if I didn't smell of death."

Eragon's jaw dropped. _Billions? What kind of war claims that many lives?_

His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the forces from Tronjheim. Among them was Arya, Orik, and Murtagh, all fitted in armor and with their weapons drawn. Orik and Murtagh immediately turned to the being in the armor and was about to attack him when a loud roar sounded right behind the newcomer. One of the Urgals was faking it's death, and used the opportunity to attack the warrior, stabbing its short sword into his back, only to watch the blade skate off the armor as if it was made of solid stone, not even scratching it.. The warrior _moved_, turning impossibly fast to face the Urgal. His gauntleted hands lashed out like snakes, each one pounding a deep hole into the Urgal's chest, breaking every bone in it and sending the creature staggering backwards. He then pulled out a blue object the size of a orange, and then triggered it, causing it to burst into a strange sapphire flame, before hurling it at the open maw of the still alive Urgal. The Urgal howled in agony as the flames began to melt its mouth and throat, and it ran back to the mounds of slaughtered Urgals, before the burning blue object beeped, surged in brightness, and exploded.

The whole thing had taken less than 2 seconds. Murtagh and Orik immediately stopped, not wanting to meet the same fate, and instead Orik demanded, "What in Gûntera's name are you?"

The warrior put his helmet back on, and the crackle of gold surged around him again before replying, "I am a Spartan, designation number 117, and currently hold the rank of Master Chief in the UNSC. This," He gestured to the creature, now cleaning his equipment, "Is Thel 'Vadam, also known as the Arbiter. He is a former military commander of the Covenant, who fell from grace and rose again, but is not a member of the UNSC."

Eragon was about to ask when a loud feral roar got his attention, and everyone snapped around to see an Urgal scout disappear back into the tunnel behind it.

The Master Chief muttered something under his breath before turning back to them and saying, "I would explain more about where me and my companion are from, but there is no time. My motion tracker is detecting thousands of contacts moving this way. I suggest we get back into that city."

"Aye," Orik said, before saying, "Where are my manners, I do believe we have yet to introduce ourselves." The Spartan turned to face him, and Orik stopped. This warrior was very intimidating in his armor, and Orik knew now was not the time. He nodded and muttered, "It will wait until after the battle, Spartan. After that, Ajihad and Hrothgar would both like to have a word with you two, and possibly anyone else who came with you."

They started to move when Eragon called out, "Saphira cant walk with her current injuries. How do you expect us to get her back to the city?"

The Spartan paused, and then said, almost seemingly to thin air, "This is Sierra-117 to the _Dawn_, requesting heavy lifting for one wounded dragon and its rider."

The others raised their eyebrows, and then nearly jumped out of their skins when a female voice responded, "_Dawn_ to Sierra-117, heavy lifting en-route, eta thirty seconds."

Almost immediately a dull rumble was heard, and everyone except the Arbiter and Master Chief turned to see an odd gray object with wings speeding towards them, with what looked like large straps hanging beneath the back half. This object flew close to them, and the Chief motioned for the pilot of this object to move it over Saphira. The dragon hissed weakly as it descended over her, said, "_Get it away from me."_ Eragon crouched beside her and said, "Saphira, these wounds are far beyond my ability to heal. If these warriors can do that," He motioned to the still smoking pile of dead bodies, "Then maybe they can do the opposite as well."

The gray vehicle set down next to Saphira, and out of the back of the craft came 3 more people, all three dressed in armor somewhat similar to what the Chief was wearing, but lighter, both in size and coverage, and without exception covered in small holes and burn marks. One of the men had dark skin and a mustache, and had a small brown cylindrical object in his mouth, the end of which glowed and smoked slightly. On his hip was another one of those T-shaped weapons, and in his hands was a gray object with a long, thin tube sticking out the front, a larger cylinder on top on a rail, and a glowing blue display with numbers on it. Eragon probed their minds and again, found an unbreakable mental shield. Whatever these warriors went through, it must have been very brutal to cause them to protect their minds like this.

The dark skinned man turned to Eragon and said, "For a kid, you got guts. Going up against a superior force without some sort of armor is something which I doubt even the Chief has the balls to do. And he is crazy enough to jump out of a space station with an enemy bomb in tow, make it inside an enemy ship, and then use their own bomb to blow it up. Don't worry about your dragon, we are quite capable of fixing the damage." Eragon turned to Saphira and examined her wounds, before turning back to him and asking, "Are you sure?"

"Hell kid, under the right conditions we can bring the recently deceased back to life. Closing deep wounds and re-attaching limbs is almost a cakewalk for our medical technology. Oh yeah, name is Sergeant Avery Johnson, although people usually call me Johnson." Jonson extended a hand to Eragon, and reluctantly Eragon shook it. Saphira meanwhile was watching Johnson like a hawk, but was too exhausted to do anything other than glare at him. She did not trust the newcomers and their technology, especially considering their arrival absolutely ruined her day and almost got her killed.

Eragon looked at the strange gray craft, and Johnson answered his question before Eragon could even get it out. "This vehicle is called a Pelican. Its a dropship, a vehicle that ferries cargo and personnel to and from the battlefield. They are space capable, but only for planet to ship and vice versa. Trying to travel anywhere off-world in one is not a good idea." Johnson then turned to the other two with him and said, "Alright, get the dragon strapped up and ready for transport back to the _Dawn_." Johnson pulled a small boom down in front of his mouth and then said, "Johnson to _Dawn _come in please." "This is the _Dawn_, go ahead."

Johnson glanced at Eragon and Saphira's injuries. "We are going to need a medical team and a full medical suite in the cargo bay. The dragon has really taken a beating and will be needing a limb re-attached. And also, get the replicators warmed up, and make a set of combat armor for the dragon."

Eragon listened to this as he probed the would around the axe wound, trying to figure out how to get it out without killing her so they could strap her to the pelican and fly her to the newcomer's vessel.

"Johnson," Eragon called, causing the marine to turn to him with raised eyebrows. Eragon pointed to the axe and asked, "Got any rags or bandages to close this wound with after we rip it out?" Johnson chuckled before saying, "I got something a little bit better." He went into the pelican and came out with a octagonal white box with a big red cross on it. He popped it open and began digging through the contents of the box, pulling out a medium sized canister with the runes "BIOFOAM" on the side. "_What is that?"_ Saphira asked, causing Johnson to jump. He realized it was the dragon who spoke to him, and replied, "Its called biofoam. The specifics are beyond me, but we use it to close up and make a temporary repair to major injuries. It will expand and fill the wound once its been applied, and causes blood at the site of the injury, whether it be internal or external, to coagulate, essentially stopping the bleeding."

"_Will it help with my wing?"_ Saphira waved the near-stump of a wing arm. Johnson shook his head. "No, we gotta use something else for that. If I remember correctly, we were to field-test nanite technology for medical purposes, but never had the chance. Essentially they are tiny machines which read the DNA of the being they are injected into, and then use that and the materials available in the users body to re-build lost cells in the original form, afterward which they go dormant until there is another injury which requires repair. They only last a week or so, but during that week, it becomes very difficult to die from most major injuries. The reason we never used them is we didn't have the time to properly test them in battlefield conditions. Now, about the axe." Johnson went back into the pelican and pulled out a dark green bag, one stuffed with cloth and other items, and threw it to Saphira. "Bite down on that while we pull this thing out. And try to not thrash around much."

Johnson prepped the biofoam canister, attaching a flat applicator to the dispensing end while Eragon got a better grip on the axe. Saphira clamped her jaws down on the bag, before saying, "_Alright... make it quick."_

Eragon nodded, and then swiftly wrenched the axe out of Saphira's leg. Immediately blood began spurting out of the severed artery, and Saphira let loose a howl of pain through the bag, but managed to keep still long enough for Johnson to empty the contents of the biofoam can into the gash. Almost like magic, the pale yellow foam rapidly expanded in the wound, cutting off the stream of blood and closing off the breached blood vessels, stopping the bleeding entirely. Saphira groaned, and then turned around to examining the results. The gash had been replaced by a small mound of stiff foam, tinted red from her blood, but amazingly the wound didn't burn like fire anymore. It still hurt, but it was more a dull throbbing ache, and if she didn't overexert herself she would be able to move.

Johnson quickly did the same with her tail and then came to her destroyed wing and sighed. "Well, hate to tell you this, but whats left of the wing has to go. We'll grow you a new one as soon as we get on the ship, and then attach it."

"And how long will that take?" Eragon asked. "Up to about 3 hours." Johnson pulled out his combat knife and quickly severed the remaining flesh and sinew holding on the wrecked wing. The wing fell to the ground with a thud, and Johnson quickly sealed it with more biofoam, pocketing the expended canister. "Alright, major holes are sealed, ready to move. PERKINS!" Johnson suddenly shouted at one of the others, who jumped. "Get this dragon secure and ready to move, we got incoming hostiles." "Yes sir!" the person named Perkins saluted Johnson before him and the other person quickly strapped Saphira up to the Pelican.

A loud roar got all of their attention as more Urgals arrived. "Alright, time to go!" Johnson and the other two climbed aboard the back area of the Pelican and motioned Eragon to follow. He gingerly climbed in and sat down, noting that the seats were little more than a thin cushion over a hard metal he had never seen before. To the front of the compartment was a door, and two red lights. There was another one of those octagonal white boxes, with a similarly shaped scorch mark where the other one used to be. Now that he actually had time to look, he didn't see anything of theirs which wasn't burned, blasted, or otherwise damaged, a testament to what they had went through.

His thoughts were cut off as the Pelican's engines increased from a low rumble to a high pitched screech, and with a lurch the vehicle lifted off and began moving forward. One of the Urgals on the ground attempted to take a swipe at the departing Saphira, who craned her head around and retaliated with a jet of sapphire flame. The Urgal went up like a torch, leather armor catching easily in the super hot flames, and within moments the creature was a pile of ash. The other Urgals on the ground wouldn't have any of this, and many of them readied short bows, and all of them targeted Saphira.

"Oh, so they want to practice shooting eh?" Johnson muttered, taking another pull on the object in his mouth and exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Alright, I think I can deal with that." He kicked open a footlocker, and pulled out a long, thin black object, with a large flat end and a feature he had recognized on the other weapons these newcomers had used: a trigger. Johnson glanced at Eragon and said, "This my good man, is a SRS99D-S2 Sniper Rifle. This weapon fires a titanium-tungsten dart at hypersonic speed, and can place that shot within an inch of where you want it at ranges up to three thousand yards. In the hands of a master, this is the finger of god." With that, he slotted in a small object into the bottom, pulled a lever on the side, picked his first victim, and fired.

The weapon let loose a loud crack, and a thin contrail traced the path of the bullet from the barrel to its unlucky victims, a pair of Urgals on the ground. The first Urgal took the shot through the skull, causing it to simply vanish in a haze of blood and bone. The one directly behind it took the round in the chest, ripping the upper torso from the lower and sending the former flying backwards into the ranks of the approaching army. Johnson fired again, and the shot found 3 more victims. "Hey flyboy! Get us out of here!" Johnson shouted at the door. The Urgals on the ground noticed Johnson and instead shifted their aim to him, and they all released the flock of arrows. "Oh shit."  
Saphira let loose another jet of flame and caught the entire flight of arrows in it, incinerating them and causing the metal heads to shatter from the explosive heating. "_You keep them off me, and ill return the favor,"_ Saphira turned to Johnson. "_Do this, and ill trust you again."_ Johnson nodded, before expending the weapon and ejecting the object he put in earlier, letting it clatter to the floor. Johnson put the weapon back in its locker, and pulled out his first weapon, before pointing it at the horde of Urgals now almost out of bow-shot. He squeezed the trigger, and the weapon responded with a 3 shot burst, and a trio of golden canisters coming out of the side. The bullets which he fired each found a separate target, and each one fell without a sound. The entire army ground to a halt as they tried to figure out what precisely was killing them. They would never find out as a loud buzzing sound came directly from the front of the Pelican, and the entire leading twenty lines of the army exploded into a bloody paste, the shots from whatever weapon mounted on the front of the dropship pulverizing them. Eragon watched in horror as the weapon buzzed again, delivering its deadly cargo to the Urgal lines, cutting them down like a scythe would wheat. Within seconds the entire enemy army was in a panic, trying to get away from the slowly flying gray hellion that rained death on their ranks.

"Well, ain't that a turkey shoot if I ever saw one," Johnson crowed. "Bastards don't know what hit them."

"What the blazes was that?" Eragon asked.

"That was the chain gun. In its basic form, it has anywhere from three to seven barrels all rotating around a central axis. When a barrel lines up with the round in the chamber, the bullet gets fired out. Thing is, they have fire rates upwards of seven thousand rounds per minute, and fire depleted uranium slugs about the size of one of the dragon's teeth, and then there is the fact each shell is moving close to five times the speed of sound. So, lots of small dense lumps of metal moving at high speed will get you _that._" He pointed out at the mounds of dead Urgals and the fleeing army.

Eragon shuddered. That would explain how so many died in whatever war they had come from.

Johnson continued to examine the carnage behind them, and darkly muttered, "Damn, now I know what it feels like to be a Covenant commander ordering the glassing of a planet."

"_What is the Covenant?"_ Saphira asked.

"What _was_ the Covenant is what you should be asking. They are a large alliance of seven different alien races, all united by some faith that when they die they walk on a Great Journey or someshit like that. The races involved, from the most important to the least, are the Prophets, Elites, Hunters, Brutes, Engineers, Jackals, and Grunts, but I don't know their own names for themselves. They first made contact with us on one of our own worlds, an Ag world we called Harvest," Johnson saw Eragon's puzzled look and said, "Agriculture world. Its a planet that we used to grow food for all the other worlds we once had dominion over. Anyways, they met us, things went rapidly sour, and before the week was out, most of the six million people on Harvest were dead, and the planet had been glassed."

"_Glassed? By that do you mean, melted into glass?"_

"Not quite, but you get the idea. What happens during a glassing is that all of the Covenant ships in the area fire everything they have at the planet, burning and melting everything into a molten sea. The atmosphere burns off, the oceans boil, and within a day or two a world that may have been bursting with life becomes a dead, barren ball floating in space. Nothing on the planet survives."

Eragon turned pale.

"That was the start of the Human-Covenant war. For the next thirty-three years, we would try to defend our worlds from the Covenant, and every time we failed. They had superior firepower, superior defensive abilities, and strength in numbers both in space and on the ground. And then came the Spartans. Cooked up by some ONI Section Three spooks, those crazy bastards could be called gods of war. I've seen a single Spartan go up against an entire battalion of Covenant and come out unharmed on the other side, while the battalion had taken near 100% casualties. I've seen a squad of them go up against an enemy stronghold, and even though they lost one of their own, they destroyed the station and almost 500 enemy ships, many of which were cruisers and carriers. Big ships, just one of which could flatten one of our own battle-groups. Whenever faced with superior forces, they always pounded them into the ground, and destroyed them by the millions. Bringing just one Spartan onto the battlefield was often enough to turn the tide of a ground war. It was never enough though. The Covenant were still superior in space, and there really wasn't much one could do against them except evacuate and run for it. Jericho VII, REACH, and hundreds of other worlds were all burned. I was on a ship called the _Pillar of Autumn_ when those bastards finally won the fight and began burning Reach. And that's when we found it. Halo. A ring-world ten-thousand kilometers in diameter and containing everything one could need to survive. Air, water, hard land, hell, even life, it was all on the ring. At first, we were just trying to figure out how to survive on the ring, trying to fight the Covenant ground forces, and at the same time try and find a ticket home. That whole plan got shot to hell when we found the Flood."

He was cut short by the pilot who opened the hatch and, after saluting Johnson, said, "We're almost there sir." Johnson nodded and turned to the two other soldiers in the compartment. "Alright you heard the man. Get your asses in gear and ready to unsling our blue friend."

The Pelican slowed, turned around, and began flying backwards into the cargo bay, treating Eragon to an excellent view of the _Dawn_. His jaw began to drop as he realized just how massive the ship was. "Its huge!" he breathed.

Johnson shook his head. "Nope, this one is a small one. Allow me to present the UNSC Frigate, _Forward Unto Dawn_. She is 489 meters long bow to stern, is powered by a pair of fusion reactors, and her hull is sixty centimeters of solid Titanium-A armor. She is capable of transluminal travel, and is armed with a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, fifty Archer missile pods, and 3 Shiva nuclear missiles, and is home to some of the best in the UNSC, including the Master Chief, and is commanded by Captain Miranda Keys, daughter of Jakob Keys, possibly the best strategist we ever had." The Pelican shook as something clamped onto it from above, and as soon as that happened, the engines shut down. Saphira shook herself out of the stupor she had sunk into and looked around, and her jaw dropped.

The bay was packed with dozens of vehicles, and close to a hundred humans, all scurrying around and apparently getting ready for battle. In the corner of this massive bay, there was a group of humans all dressed in white, surrounded by a large variety of equipment, some of it quite shiny, and sharp. Spread underneath the humans and the equipment was a large, sky blue sheet, with an area clearly marked off where Saphira was supposed to go.

The Pelican was hauled over to this area, and was slowly lowered until Saphira was able to stand. The two men that came with them jumped out and quickly unclipped the slings, allowing Saphira to move about. The dropship moved off to the side, and Eragon jumped out. One of the white-garbed men motioned for Eragon to walk towards him, and Eragon moved cautiously before sitting down.

The man put on a thin paper mask and then said, "My name is Tyler, and I've been told you and your dragon got into a tight spot." Eragon nodded, and Tyler began gathering medical supplies. "Well? Cant fix whats broken unless you tell me whats busted." Eragon jumped and painfully extended his gashed arm, the wound itself having sealed itself with a thick crust of blood. Tyler's eyebrows rose. "Well, thats not a bad cut you got yourself there. Lets see if I can fix it." Tyler pulled a small canister of biofoam out of the mass of supplies, and a long syringe full of a slightly glowing yellow fluid. "Ahh, biofoam." Tyler said. "Wondrous material in the medical world. Capable of sealing any wound, internal or external, and clean it at the same time. Makes my life a lot easier, as all I have to do is peel it away and get to work." "Whats in that?" Eragon said, pointing rather apprehensively at the syringe.

"Those are nanites." A female voice responded out of nowhere. Eragon almost jumped out of his skin and looked around wildly for the source of the voice. A small, slightly purple glowing disk nearby gave a flare of static, and with a pop, a woman popped into existence. Or at least it looked like a woman. Her hair was cropped short, and her eyes were a piercing ice blue. The rest of her slender frame was a deeper shade of blue, almost purple in color, and was covered in scrolling figures. Eragon turned slightly red when he realized she was nude, albeit without the details.

Johnson walked up to them, and this figure turned to Johnson and said, "You do realize there is an army of those things almost a million strong about to attack the city below right?"

Johnson nodded. "I left the Chief and Arbiter down there to get things sorted out. It would be a good idea to give them some better equipment, as a pistol and energy sword arent going to do much against a force that big." The woman nodded, and then turned to Eragon. "I'm sorry about what happened to your dragon, but we honestly did not have any idea as to where the portal went or what we would find on the other side. It seems this universe has some new rules for us to play by."

Eragon just sat there dumbstruck, not even sure how to answer or what questions to ask. He finally managed to stammer out, "What are you?"

The woman drew herself up to her full 2 foot height and said, "I am Cortana, a fifth generation UNSC Artificial Intelligence, or AI, for short. To cut down on time, I am essentially a sentient machine, and the brain of this vessel."  
"That's impossible. Machines aren't supposed to be intelligent or even that complex."

Cortana raised an eyebrow. "And yet here you are on the most complex piece of machinery and circuitry on this world speaking to a computer. We thought magic and dragons were impossible too, until you proved us wrong. Speaking of dragons, are they intelligent? No offense, but I must know."

"_Yes, we are an intelligent and proud race, machine, though few in number."_ Saphira said, trying to ignore the pain of the medics poking at her wounds.

Cortana paused, and then said, "Warning. Motion detectors indicate massive subterranean movement. My guess is the army is moving in from underground." Her image vanished and was replaced by an incredibly accurate scan of the open caldera, showing the city, the panel chunks, and four massive red blobs moving quickly towards the city.

"Oh god..." Eragon breathed. "They are going to get slaughtered."

"Not if I have anything to say about it." A womans voice, younger this time, called.

Eragon turned and was greeted by a young raven-haired woman in her mid thirties, in a uniform that clearly said she was the commander of this vessel. This theory was proven correct when every person in the area saluted her simultaneously. "At ease," she returned the salute, before turning to Eragon. "I am Miranda Keys, Commander of this ship. You said the people in the city are about to get slaughtered right?"

Eragon nodded. "The evil king Galbatorix is trying to wipe us out. I would explain in detail, but long story short, he, as am I, are Dragon Riders. With the dragon comes magic powers and immortality. I can still be killed by blade, poison, or whatever preferred method of death you desire, but barring that, we live forever. Which is the ultimate problem. Galbatorix has gone insane, and has been for quite some time, and coupled with the fact he is many times more powerful than I am, he has a vast army at his command, of which the Urgals beneath us are but a small part. The people of Alagaesia live in poverty and terror, besieged by high taxes, the Urgals, Galbatorix's army, and a number of dark beings under his command, the most powerful of which being a Shade. Those are easily distinguished by crimson eyes and hair, pale skin, extreme proficiency at magic and swordplay, and the fact they are incredibly strong."

"What about you and the others inside the city?" Cortana's skin surged with symbols.

"We are the Varden, the resistance against Galbatorix. Right now we don't have a normal place to call home, so the Dwarves have agreed to let us stay in their city, Tronjheim, which is the reason we are getting attacked right now. And there is one other thing."

"And that is?" Johnson growled.

"_I am the last female of my kind. When the king took power, with the help of the Forsworn, he slew all the other riders and the wild dragons, ultimately leaving only his own dragon, Shruikan, and 3 eggs. I hatched from one of those eggs to Eragon, but the other two remain trapped in Galbatorix's vaults."_ Saphira was growling the entire time she said this, clearly angered at the thought of having the last two of her kin in the hands of that monster.

"As much as I like this tale, we have bigger problems," Cortana's image vanished again, this time showing a live video stream. It showed hundreds of thousands of Urgals surrounding the city about 4 miles away and slowly marching inwards.

"Very well, we shall continue this later." Keys then turned to Johnson. "As the highest ranking officer on board this ship, I hereby give you command of all UNSC ground forces, which includes the Master Chief. Get your men ready for a siege."

* * *

So? What'd you think? Bit overkill for a start, but hey, at least i tried. Comments, questions, flames, i take it all.


	2. And into the Inferno

Oh wow guys, I honestly wasn't expecting this. Almost 10 reviews and ~200+ hits? Hmm, maybe I actually got something here.

Dragonman10: thanks!

Master of the Blood Wolves: I'm trying man, I'm trying. This is something new for me, so forgive me if I flop around a bit before I kick things off in earnest.

Me (sign your review next time dude!): Very nice review length, and you gave me some pointers on getting things done, and maybe it should work out. I would like to say though that the culture shock is more severe on the Neo-Covie forces as they don't have any concept of magic at all whereas the UNSC forces actually have fantasy novels and stuff. And hopefully the dialogue is better this chapter.

Undeaddade: thanks!

Wertmon505: once every 2-4 weeks is my target, I gotta fight with school first. Thank god I only got 1 quarter left, and then its graduation time!

Anon: sorry, didn't know I had misspelled the Commander's name. And the speech length has been dealt with, although (SPOILER!) some rather lengthy explanation is coming next chapter. Gotta have some bloodshed first.

ZeroDivisionCaptain: I know. I got the idea from the other major Xover between the Halo and Inheritance universes, and while I liked the idea, it needed a lot more work, so I decided to do it myself.

Hideout Writer: Want more? wish granted

Arandomreviewer: Maybe ;)

Anquietas: I know i know, i fucked it up. could have been worse. ALOT worse.

Now, on to the promised fragfest!

* * *

Turn of the Tides Chapter 2: …. And into the inferno.

"This is Cortana to Sierra-117 and the Arbiter." Everyone in the area immediately jumped at the unexpected sound of Cortana's voice coming from John's helmet.

John keyed his mic and replied, "Go ahead Cortana."

The AI composed herself before beginning. "I'm sending all of the intel the boy, Eragon, and his dragon, Saphira, told us, as well as visual and motion sensor data." John's HUD was promptly swamped with data, including everything from data on the dragon to what they were going up against. He quickly absorbed the information, and replied, "Very well. Requesting heavy armor and air support, as well as every man we have."

"Already one step ahead of you Chief. The Pelicans are already inbound with the Marines and weapons, and the only Longsword is getting geared up for bombing runs. At the enemy army's current pace, they will be at the wall of the city within ten minutes."

"Barzul! Damn filth wont even give us time to get ready for a fight." Orik cursed

His next words were drowned out by the roar of a dozen Pelicans cruising over the city, followed by the deep rumble of the ship itself. The Pelicans set down equidistantly around the city, and out of the back of them came a dozen Marines, each one weighed down by an enormous amount of equipment. "A dozen men?" Orik said weakly. "A dozen men is all you have to offer?" The Chief shook his head. "Each dropship has anywhere from four to twenty men on board, as well as the vehicles and weapons we will be using to defend this city. Adding the Arbiter and his forces, we have eighty soldiers willing to keep this city secure. Add in air support and vastly superior weaponry, and should we do this right, they will never reach the walls."

"How can so few kill so many?" Murtagh asked. "There has to be thousands of them out there."

"Actually the figure is three hundred ninety one thousand five hundred twenty two if the count is correct," Everyone's jaws dropped at this figure. "And you underestimate our weapons and combat experience. We have fought against overwhelming odds before and won." The Chief shook his head. "The problem now is not whether we can win this battle, its a matter of ammunition. With this many targets its going to be difficult to ensure each group has enough ammunition, which is where your forces come in, dwarf." Orik jumped before saying, "No mean to be rude, but I am not the commander of the Dwarvish forces within the city. You would have to speak to Hrothgar, king of the Dwarves and leader of mine clan." The Chief nodded, filing the thought away. "Even so, in the event they do get past us, it would be prudent to have anyone who is capable of fighting out and ready to defend the city. Set them around the gates, as they are the weakest point." Orik nodded, and then motioned for a messenger dwarf nearby to tell Hrothgar that the gods were about to take one mighty crap on them, before he began rapidly donning his armor.

A faint roar of an Urgal sounded from over the wall, and the Chief selected a large yellow weapon with huge green tubes of material sticking out of the top.

John crouched down and tilted back, angling the weapon high, before depressing the firing stud. With a loud _thok!_ the weapon discharged a sizzling green bolt, arcing high over the wall and racing outwards. Quickly the Chief exhausted the weapon, reloading it with more tubes of the same green material, before standing up and listening. After several seconds, there were several large explosions and flashes of green light over the wall, quickly followed the by the screams of dying Urgals. The Chief saw their stunned faces and quickly said, "Fuel rod cannon. Turns the user into a mobile artillery unit."

A deafening roar sounded over the wall, the sound of nearly four hundred thousand throats baying for blood, before it was drowned out by a rolling rumble. Murtagh turned to the Chief. "Nice one. Instead of getting them to back off, you enraged them even more."

Johnson came in over the comm and said dryly, "Well, I was hoping to get some time to place some mines and maybe some fougasse. Turn the whole place into a barbecue and make short work of those ugly brutes. Guess its time for plan B."

His "Plan B" came rolling up on 4 tracked pods and weighed approximately seventy tons and was followed by a huge floating purple behemoth, both machines growling as their power-plants strained under their bulk. "What in the gods are these machinations?" Orik breathed. "The big gray one is a Scorpion tank, sixty-six tons of HE spewing de-vine intervention! And the ugly purple bastard is a Wraith tank, one of the meanest pieces of Covenant ground armor."

The machines came to a halt and opened up, revealing that the cockpits were empty. Cortana's voice came over both John and Vadam's headsets, "Hurry you two. The Urgals will reach the walls within a minute." The Chief didn't need a second opinion. Both him and the Arbiter jumped into their respective vehicles before moving towards the gate at the southern end of the city. As they drove by the place where one of the Pelicans landed, a Warthog and half a dozen Marines joined the Chief and Arbiter. Also joining them was a pair of Unngoy, each one clad in red armor and sitting astride a Ghost. One of them shouted at the dumbstruck dwarves at the gate, "Get out of the way! Arbiter and Demon on warpath!"

* * *

Inside his tank, the Arbiter was coordinating the defense of the city and the attack on the Urgal army. Another Wraith tank and 3 more Scorpion tanks had been deployed, as well as a small motorcade of vehicles ranging from Mongooses to a captured Seraph fighter. 'Vadam looked at the armor, and began delivering orders to his troops.

"'Rodam, take your Wraith to the eastern gate and defend it. Flupup, take your soldiers up to the wall and lay down suppressing fire around the tank. Do not let these beasts get to it."

"Acknowledged Arbiter, it will be done," was the reply from both of them, the Sangheili warrior a deep rich voice and the Unggoy a high pitched squeak.

Bringing out the tanks would be an effective way to scare and terrorize the enemy troops. The Arbiter knew the effect of psychological warfare on his enemies, having practiced it and been the victim of it many times. He located the Mgalekgolo pair and said to them, "Go to the west gate, and do what needs to be done. Keep collateral to a minimum." The deep rumble of the pair replied, "Very well Arbiter, we shall go to the west gate and defend it."

The Chief was doing the same, coordinating with Johnson on deploying the Marines, placing most up on the wall to give them a clean line of fire and the devastating advantage of height over the opposing troops. He also ordered that 8 fixed turrets, half plasma, half minigun, get placed equidistantly around the city, to provide massive overlapping fields of fire. What Marines werent on the wall were sent up to the dragon hold, using the height it offered for an excellent platform for sniping from. If Linda was here, she would most likely find the most convoluted spot she could, and find her prey from there. John shook his head. They were all gone, and there was nothing he could do about it, just keep to the mission at hand. After making sure that the Marines were in the best position from which they could defend the city, he then told them to load all of their grenade launchers with phosphorus shells, nasty explosive devices which, upon detonation, spray white hot burning phosphorus everywhere, embedding chips of the material in all exposed flesh within range and igniting anything even remotely flammable. One shell had an effective radius of thirty feet, and a constant rain of them would light a super-hot ring of fire around the city, creating a protective barrier of flame that would claim thousands of lives. As everyone reported in that they were ready, he issued the order: "Open fire."

The wall seemed to simply explode as all of the Marines on it opened up, phosphorus shells raining down in front of the army and unleashing their deadly cargo, closely followed by the turrets, each one spraying thousands of rounds downrange. One of the catapaults that was in Tronjheim was loaded with Asteroidea mines and fired, raining the 8-armed explosive devices down on the Urgal forces and shredding anything that was unfortunate to be near one. Burning pieces of phosphorus embedded themselves in their victims, the fragments causing the flesh around them to burn and melt, causing the unfortunate victim to scream in agony as they were burned alive from the inside out. And if one looked hard enough, they could see a bright red ball of angry metal raining powerful bolts of topaz energy down on the horde.

The two tanks had rolled up to the gate, manned by several dwarves, who just stared dumbstruck at the massive machines rumbling there, each one weighing over fifty tons and the biggest machines they had ever seen move. The hatch on the Scorpion opened up, revealing the Spartan inside, who looked at the dwarves and said, "Open it."

_WHUMP!_

With a loud crash, the surviving Urgals slammed into the other side of the massive oak doors, pounding into it and hacking away at the dense timber with gusto, baying for the blood of their brother's slayers. The dwarves looked at John and shook their head, who sighed and then closed the hatch on the tank. He switched from driving to gun control, and pointed the 15 foot long barrel at the door, and before anyone could even think of stopping him, he fired.

The enormous cannon let loose a loud _boom!_ as the hypersonic depleted uranium round blew through the door like it was made of tissue paper, shattering it instantly and sending its broken remains flying outwards. The remains of the door soared over the army, impaling Urgals and crushing those who were unlucky enough to be caught under the falling pieces of the gate. The shell itself didn't stop, racing through the Urgal lines and simply vaporizing anything it hit. The shell was moving so fast it didn't need to hit its target to blast it to bits, the overpressure wave ensuring that the flesh of the Urgals never touched the slug from firing to impact ten miles away at the base of one of the petals of the volcano. Between the Chief and the end of the tank shell's flight path, hundreds of shattered corpses littered the ground. Blood and gore covered the battlefield, painting it a gruesome mix of crimson and brown. After a few seconds, the chunks of the Urgals that had been directly hit by the shell came splattering back down, showering the survivors with the blood of their brothers. The Urgals at the gate had been completely pulverized, victim of not only the passage of the shell, but also the shock-wave of the explosive charge that had slung the shell out of the barrel. Not giving any of the survivors respite, the Chief spun up the chain gun and opened fire, spraying thousands of rounds downrange and into the enraged horde. The leading edge seemed to melt under the hail of bullets, Urgals flying apart as the super-sonic depleted uranium slugs, normally meant for light anti-armor purposes, blew through them and carved a deep pocket into their ranks.

The Arbiter knew it was then time to bring the terror of the Wraith onto the battlefield, and charged past the Chief while priming the main mortar on the tank. The automated plasma cannons on the tank opened fire, and the result was as horrific as the opening shot.

The Urgals saw the much slower moving plasma coming, and foolishly moved their primitive metal bucklers into the path of the super-hot bolts. The next thing they knew, the metal was on fire and melting, as were they. The bolts of plasma didn't have the anti-materiel properties of the projectiles of the Humans, but they made up for it with sheer heat. Each Urgal hit by the stream of fire went up in flames, screaming as the ionized bolts mercilessly burned through them, boiling fluids and turning the blood in their veins into steam. Several Urgals simply exploded from the inside out from the amount of steam building up inside them, spraying blood and bone everywhere. The main mortar on the Arbiter's Wraith was primed and ready, and with a spoken command to the other Wraith pilot, he fired.

On both sides of the city, every spectator watched as the purple behemoths shuddered and spat a blazing sapphire comet into the sky, wondering what horror would be unleashed when they came back down in the army. After several seconds of flight, every Scorpion simultaneously fired their deadly cannons, synchronizing them with the impact of the mortars. The result was pure chaos.

Each mortar launched from a Wraith tank is a 6 foot ball of plasma contained by its own magnetic field and heated to roughly half a million degrees. They are fired on a semi-guided ballistic trajectory, making avoiding them somewhat easy, considering they fly slowly. When they hit, the magnetic bubble the plasma is in collapses, allowing thermal expansion to take over. In a microsecond, the ball exploded into a sheet of sapphire plasma, igniting everything. Metal, wood, flesh, hell, the very rock itself, all of it went up in flames. The Urgals found this out as their lines were incinerated, not even getting a chance to scream before the fire was upon them and annihilated them, leaving nothing more than ash and bone fragments. The metal from their weapons was turned into little more than molten slag, each pool glowing white hot and visibly burning.

The real terror on the battlefield though was the Mgalekgolo. Each one stood 8 feet tall in their combat state, and were almost completely covered in a near impenetrable armor. Attached to their right "arm" was their assault cannon, capable of firing either streams of radioactive goo or burning bolts, and attached to their left arm was the indestructible shield they were famous for. The reason there was no tank at the west gate was because it would be pointless with those two there. They knew that they were once again going up against an inferior enemy, and they intended to teach the Urgals a thing or two about fear.

The Urgals didn't know what to do about the behemoths, and the three seconds they stood there trying to figure out what to do, the Hunters were on them. The first of the pair ran at the nearest Urgal, who readied its axe in preparation for a fight. The next thing it knew, the four thousand pound shield slammed into its chest and proceeded to cave in its rib cage, killing it instantly. Before the creatures could even react to the presence of the Hunters, the second one opened fire with a sustained stream of green death, with results as devastating as the Wraith mortars.

In less than thirty seconds, a tenth of the army was either dead or dying, and the rest was in disarray from the sudden assault from weapons of incredible power. The phosphorus shells ran out, and those who were firing the shells switched to other weapons before continuing the stream of fire into the horde. Combat rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, needlers, everything went thundering downrange, turning the outer wall into a light show as the woefully outnumbered UNSC and NC forces used everything they had to their advantage.

It wasn't enough. For every Urgal they felled another took its place. There were huge numbers of them, and despite the fact they were dying by the thousands, tens of thousands more were coming onto the battlefield through the tunnels. They were slowly but surely being overrun.

* * *

Eragon watched the battle on the holotank in shock. These weapons were beyond anything he thought should be possible. The vehicles alone caused a significant number of casualties, the weapons mounted on the vehicles bringing death every time they were fired. The soldiers up on the wall did a fraction of the effort that he or Murtagh or any normal soldier would do to take a life, and yet they brought death like a storm brought rain. Eragon shook his head, fighting the bile rising up his throat, and didn't notice that he was about to fall out his seat.

Johnson caught him and hauled him back up into the seat, noticing that Eragon was a pale shade of green. "You alright kid?" Johnson asked.

"How can you bring death on such a scale and be so numb to it?" Eragon asked weakly.

"Because it was once brought on us as well." Johnson growled. "I supposed we have gotten a little too used to the carnage."

"Ahem," Cortana did the closest approximation of clearing her throat. "The war stories can wait, Johnson. Right now we need to figure out what to do about the Urgals. More of those creatures are coming up through the tunnels, and despite our firepower, we need to close them or we will be overrun." Cortana's hologram dissolved back to the map again, this time seething with red. Several thick lines of it could be seen entering from all sides, indicating that there were many more reinforcements on the way.

"Could we use some Archer missiles?" Keyes asked. Cortana shook her head. "The Archers were meant only for ship to ship combat. Attempting to use them against ground targets, especially in an environment like this, would bring more collateral than I would like to mention."

Suddenly there was a bright spot on the map."What is that?" Eragon pointed to the swiftly moving bright spot as it moved in alongside the Urgal forces. "I don't know. Its emitting a large amount of EM radiation, similar to what we detected when you ignited your sword through magic. But the quality... its different. A high level magician maybe?" Cortana sounded unusually hesitant, not quite accepting the presence of magic. Something like that violated many laws of the universe. Maybe after the fight she could ask Eragon to tell her something about it.

Eragon watched the glowing patch, wondering what it was, praying it wasn't the worst thing possible. Cortana interrupted his thoughts when she said, "I got a visual on the being emitting the radiation. I think you might want to take a look at this."

The map switched to one of the exterior cameras that Cortana was using to watch the carnage, and zoomed in on the person.

As soon as it did Eragon turned pale, while Saphira let loose a vicious hiss. "Oh god... its Durza."

The map reappeared, and another flare was seen on the other side of the city, and soon enough, Cortana had it on visual. Another Shade stood there, crimson eyes and hair clearly visible, but was different than Durza. The new Shade stood seven feet tall, and instead of long hair like Durza, this Shade had cropped it short. He was clad in armor that was blacker than night, and seemed to shimmer, as if it wasn't quite on this plane of existence. In this Shade's hands was a wicked scythe, stained red with blood, and with a gigantic blade that was so massive no human could ever hope to hold it. What made it even more repulsive was that the handle was constructed entirely out of bone. Eragon turned even more pale. "Two Shades, hes got two of them!"

Johnson growled. "Whatever these 'Shades' are, they are going to last long. If we want something dead, we kill it, no ifs, ands or buts. And if we cant kill it, I think the Chief will have some fun fighting it."

Eragon shook his head. "The only way to kill a Shade is to stab it through the heart. Any other way will simply cause it to reform somewhere else and much more stronger than before. Your weapons wouldn't do anything to him except get him angry." Johnson's response was to pull out the handle of an Energy Sword and light it. "Think this would be more than enough to kill one of them?" Eragon backed away slightly from the white hot blade before nodding. "Alright, I'll make sure the Chief and Arbiter get one each. Boy are they going to have themselves some fun today!"

* * *

Fred, Linda, Dr Halsey, Linda, and the remaining Spartan-IIIs had been walking for days now. Water wasn't hard to come across inside the Dyson Sphere, nor was food. The sun had been ever present, regardless of what time it was, and it beat down on them. The Spartans were well protected inside their armor, but Mendez and Halsey were both beginning to suffer from heat exhaustion. The Spartan-IIs all were still alert, still on edge after loosing Kurt and William to the Covenant forces. Halsey couldn't blame them. She had raised them, comforted them, and she knew them more intimately than any other being alive other than one of their own. They may have be able to conceal their emotions from the younger Spartans, but Halsey could see it clear as day. Her Spartan-IIs were mourning, something they rarely did, and it was something which pained her.

Her thoughts wandered to how they were going to get out of here. The Dyson Sphere was encased in a compressed Slipspace bubble, and outside of it was the core room which was guaranteed to be seething with Covenant forces which kicked their asses the last time they engaged them. Halsey already had enough trouble fixing them up after the first fight, her portable Sterile Field Generator running out of power shortly after the second day they were here. And without the needed equipment to open another Slipspace portal, they were essentially trapped inside. The good news though was that they had managed to get Team Katana out of their Slipspace pods, which added to their forces somewhat.

_Oh the irony,_ Halsey thought. _We came here looking for weapons, and instead go ourselves locked inside what amounts to a cosmic vault. _ Her thoughts were interrupted when Linda, who used the scope on her sniper rifle to scout the featureless terrain ahead, said, "I see something, about 10 klicks distant. Something other than trees and flat grasslands." Mendez pulled out a ancient set of optical binoculars and examined it himself, while the Spartans opted for the scopes of their weapons or their faceplate magnification. What they saw was distinctly different from anything they had seen, and yet oddly familiar.

It was a massive pyramid. Instead of being constructed of sandstone and bleached white by endless days, it was constructed of solid metal, perfectly smooth sided, and almost blinding to look at from the wrong angle. In front of it were 2 towering obelisks, these also made of metal and covered from top to bottom in the hieroglyphics of the Forerunners. A small temple was in front of the pyramid, but this temple was constructed of stone, and looked like it had seen better days. It was covered in scorch marks and blast craters, clear evidence that a fierce battle had been fought here, yet strangely enough the rest of the area surrounding the temple didn't have so much as a burn mark.

After a few hours of walking, they made it to the pyramid and were walking across the threshold into the dark and thankfully cool interior. Fred and Kelly took point, rapidly sweeping through the small interior of the building, checking for threats before Halsey and Mendez came in deeper. They made it to the end of the temple, where a strange, ring like object stood upright against the wall at the end of a large chamber lined with thick stone columns. After a few moments, they lowered their weapons and said, "All clear."

A minute later, Halsey and the rest of them were standing in front of the object, examining it and trying to make sense of it. Spaced equidistantly around it were 9 triangular crystals, each one a deep orange-red color, and flanked by more of the same material the rest of the ring was made of, in a similar shape of the crystals. On an inner ring, 38 odd symbols were carved into it, each one partitioned off into their own section. The entire ring was a dull gray color, almost black, and had an inner diameter of 22 feet on the dot.

"So, any idea of what this thing is?" Mendez asked. Halsey shook her head. "These symbols are not of any language I have ever seen before, if it even is a language. The glyphs on the walls however are in Forerunner. Give me a moment to decipher them." She pulled out her laptop, and within moments both Halsey and her personal AI were deciphering the symbols on the wall.

Mendez shrugged, before moving to examine the pedestal like object standing in front of the ring. The pedestal was of the same near-black material as was the ring, and came up to about his waist. On its surface were 38 panels, each one with a raised symbol on its surface that matched one of the symbols on the ring. In the middle of the panels, there was a large red dome, some kind of giant button. Just on a whim, he pressed one of the symbols on the device.

With a groan and whirr of spinning motors, the inner track began to move. Like lightning, every Spartan turned towards the ring, their weapons leveled and ready to shoot. After a moment, the inner track came to a stop, the symbol which Mendez had pressed directly underneath the top triangle. It lit up, as well as another directly to its right, before turning off again. The other triangle remained lit, as well as the corresponding symbol on the panel.

Halsey jumped at the same time the Spartans turned towards the ring and shouted, "Damnit Mendez don't touch anything!"

He raised his hands defensively and backed away, not willing to risk the wrath of Halsey. She was already greatly displeased at him becoming involved in the S-III program, and having the woman jump down his throat is the last thing he needed.

The Spartans lowered their weapons and resumed their scans of the local area, keeping a keen eye on their motion trackers, seeing nothing but themselves on it.

"Well, I think I know what it is." Halsey said quietly. "If I am reading this correctly, its a description of this device." Halsey paused as she quickly examined the glyphs on the wall. "Its a gate to the stars... no that's not quite right. Stargate. That's what it is."

"And... this tells us what precisely?" Mendez was still standing next to the pedestal, wondering what this 'Stargate' was capable of.

"If I am reading these right, the gate is 'dialed' by entering 7 symbols into it; 6 for the destination, one to plot a course. After which, the gate activates, and you walk through to your destination, be it anywhere in the galaxy. Awfully convenient to have the basic instruction manual around." Halsey continued to examine the rows of symbols on the wall, and noticed that a lot of them had been filled in with red ink before getting struck through, indicating that those addresses were no longer useable. In fact all of them weren't useable, except for one. This one was placed next to a white triangle placed inside another triangle with the top cut off, and instead of 7 symbols there were nine of them.

"I thought you said it used only seven symbols?" Kelley asked, examining the wall herself. Halsey continued to read the script on the wall, and then said, her voice trembling slightly, "This last address goes to an entirely new universe. Apparently the Forerunners had gotten so well versed in the mechanics of Slipspace travel and control they had managed to go to other universes. Seven symbols go to local gates, eight go to extragalactic gates, and nine... nine leave the universe entirely."

Fred walked up and examined it himself, and said, "Well, it looks like we may have to use this 'Stargate' to go to this location. It would be better than staying trapped here for an eternity." "I agree," growled Mendez. "You told us that the core of this 'shield world' was many times the size of the earth. I for one don't want to spend the rest of my days walking across it. I say we go and hope there are people willing to help us get home." The Spartans nodded in agreement.

"Very well. Lets get out of here. Mendez, since you couldn't keep your hands off the device, mind continuing?" Mendez face-palmed at the comment, but nodded before turning back to the dialer. He checked he symbols he was supposed to dial, and after noting that the one he had put in was coincidentally the first one in the sequence, he began entering the other 8. The first 7 passed without incident, but at the entering of the 8th symbol, the area began to shake. "The hell?" Mendez was about to stop dialing, but Halsey shouted, "Enter the last one!". With a shrug, he put in the last one, a triangle with a circle over its peak. All 7 visible chevrons on the Gate were lit up, and as soon as that happened the center button glowed red. The gate quieted down, but otherwise nothing happened. Mendez looked at the others and asked, "Are you all OK?" They nodded, and Mendez, who prayed the gate wouldn't do anything drastic, pressed the big red button.

With a electronic groan, the gate activated, unleashing a huge _whoosh_ of energy straight at Mendez, who ducked before it hit him. The energy fell back into the gate, and stabilized into a shimmering blue 'puddle', illuminating the room they were in with a shimmering blue/white glow.

Everyone gingerly stuck their heads out of cover, checking to make sure that the gate hadn't claimed anyone in its rather hectic activation. Mendez glared daggers at Halsey, "Was it supposed to do that?"

The woman nodded. "If I am reading this correct, activating the gate first unleashes a energy vortex of some sort before it stabilizes. Now, it doesn't say anything about what we will find on the other side."

A moment later, all of their radio's exploded into chatter, clearly coming through the gate from the other side. Both Covenant and UNSC bands were active, and they decided to listen to them.

"I need more grenades, MORE GRENADES!"

The telltale squeaky voice of a Grunt returned, "Take mine! Bad beasts everywhere!"

A rich, deep voice came next. "Spartan, we cannot hold off these beasts much longer. We must fall back to the city."

A voice they all instantly recognized and missed came back, "Very well. All forces, fall back to the city. Repeat, fall back and hit them from the wall."

Everyone turned to each other, knowing where to go next. Kelley turned to Fred. "Sir, requesting permission to go on recon through the gate." Fred nodded, and said, "Be careful." Kelley flashed the Spartan smile sigh before she prepared to walk through the vertical wall of energy that separated her from another universe. She held her breath, not quite sure what to expect, and then passed through the event horizon.

The next thing Kelley knew, her world was turned upside down. Her body fragmented into thousands of pieces before being shot forward in a rapidly swirling tunnel, racing towards a glowing ball of light. She reached this light, which went out with a flash. The next moment, millions of stars stretched and distorted themselves as Kelley suddenly and rapidly accelerated to incredible speed between two bands of energy, blowing past other stars at a speed incomprehensible to her mind. She blew forward through space, simply numb to the speed, the wormhole twisting and turning more and more violently before she saw another bright ball at the end of it all, and with a flash, she exited the wormhole and out the other side.

The moment she emerged from the end out of another gate, she heard the telltale roar of a battle was going off directly above her head. Her sensitive hearing detected the distinct sound of gunfire as well as plasma fire. All this was almost drowned out by a loud guttural bellowing, with occasional screaming as something died a brutal death. She keyed her mic and said, "This is Spartan-087. Its clear. Be advised, there is what sounds like a very one sided war going on upstairs."

Without warning, the light signals which the Spartans came on. Only one lit, and the number next to it was 117. 3 blue blinks before going out. A moment later, a comm channel opened between her and John, and a six note tone sounded, the surefire signal that it was without a doubt him.

With a dull _schlup_ Fred and Linda came out of the Stargate, weapons raised, and asked, "Any contacts?" Kelley shook her head. "Look at your scopes though." They glanced at their motion trackers, and were rewarded with a near-solid blob of red covering the entire extent of the tracker's range. There was a lot of movement up there. Another _schlup_ and the rest of the group came through the gate, each one shaking their head to get rid of the disorientation. Fred went over to the dialer and snapped an image of the glowing symbols on it, before he realized that this dialing device was different, as was the gate. Both, instead of being a dark gray with reddish crystals, this one was a silvery color with blue crystals, and overall looked sleeker, more refined.

With a snap, the gate shut down, and the entire area was plunged into darkness. Above them, the telltale boom of a Scorpion tank was heard, quickly followed by a hail of gunfire. Dust fell from the roof of the cavern from the force of the shot, pattering down onto their armor and causing the Spartan-II's shields to glow slightly.

Fred looked both ways down the tunnel, and saw that the tunnel leading away from the battle had caved in, leaving them no choice but to go towards the battle. With several quick hand signals, he motioned for the rest of them to spread out and move swiftly, with the Spartan-IIIs taking point. Another Scorpion shot sounded, followed by an explosion as something was destroyed. Almost as soon as the noise of this faded, their signal lights pulsed red five times, the signal calling for backup. The sender was labeled 117. They all looked at each other, and then bolted down the tunnel. As they ran, Cortana contacted them. "Welcome back Blue team. You came just as we were getting started." Another Scorpion shot sounded, the shock of the shot causing more rocks to fall from the ceiling. "You need to get topside as soon as possible and assist in the defense of the city. Your targets is the massive Urgal army attacking the city and our forces. You cant miss the Urgals, most of them stand eight feet tall and all of them have horns. There's one more thing you need to know about before you continue."

"What is that other thing, Cortana?" Halsey asked. Cortana was surprised to hear Halsey's voice again, but knew the time for explanations would be for later. "That other thing is that the Human-Covenant war is over. Long story short the Elites were betrayed by their leaders, and they joined up with us along with their underlings to exact their revenge, which they, as far as we know, managed to do. About thirty of the Arbiter's forces are currently with us, and I am adding their IFF tags to your 'good guy's' list, as well as placing a nav point. The closest way up is approximately 150 meters ahead and will deposit you near the North gate. Good hunting Spartans, and welcome back."

* * *

As John had predicted, the sheer amount of ammunition this battle would consume would rapidly become a problem. Most of the auto-cannons on the pelicans and on the wall had run dry, and the plasma turrets were getting close to running out of power. John had backed the Scorpion tank through the gate, and combined with the few marines in the area as well as four Sangheili warriors, held off the tide of Urgals from passing through the destroyed gate. They had deployed mobile shield emitters to slow the Urgal's advance, and as a direct consequence the shield emitters that they placed turned the area into a kill zone.

The Chief bailed out of the tank and ran over to the nearest Pelican, grabbing what little ammo remained as well as a captured Gravity Hammer, before returning to the fight and using the cudgel to devastating effect. The Gravity Hammer was a Brute weapon, immensely popular among their race due to the massive amount of power the heavy metal weapon had. One strike against any foe would pulverize their bones and pound their body into a bloody paste, and the shockwave from the hammer would send any others near the unfortunate victim flying. The Urgals attacking the gate learned this the hard way as John came thundering down in their midst, slamming the Hammer down and sending their broken bodies flying. Each impact shattered stone and mason work, turning the fragments of rock into high speed missiles, ripping through the endless tide of Urgals and leaving shattered corpses and rivers of blood behind. A Kull warrior bellowed his challenge to the green arbiter of death, and received his answer in the form of a bright blue ball stuck right between the eyes. The Urgal howled in agony as the plasma melted its face, shortly before the grenade beeped, surged in brightness, and exploded, vaporizing the Kull and the Urgals behind it.

Around him, the Dwarves and Varden had managed to get into their armor, and were dealing with any Kull which had gotten past the Spartan, quickly cutting the monsters down and avoiding the green god of war. Their forces were bolstered when _more_ of the armored giants appeared almost out of nowhere, accompanied by what looked like smaller versions of them, as well as a grizzled man in combat fatigues, and a woman who had the air of intelligence and knowledge surrounding her. The two unarmored humans fled towards the nearest Pelican, which immediately took off, and the rest of the group charged into the fray, leaving the dwarves to do little more than stare and gag (yes, gag) at the carnage being wreaked before their eyes.

The Arbiter was also on a rampage, and was still out on the battlefield in his Wraith. His auto-turrets were doing an incredible job of keeping the enemy forces off his back, and they were supplemented by the small group of Unngoy and Sangheili warriors around him, as well as the occasional sniper bullet or rocket from the city itself. One of the Kull managed to get past the defenses and had gotten right in front of the tank, before bellowing a victorious roar and slamming its axe down on the hood of the tank. The blade bounced off the thick armor, which wasn't even scratched, and fell to the side. The Kull got a stupefied look on his face, wondering how the vehicle could withstand that blow, shortly before the Arbiter boosted forward and crushed him, as well as several of his buddies under the sheer bulk of the tank.

Overhead, several Pelicans flew by dropping Damage Packs, small bags crammed full of C-12 high explosive. One pack was capable of taking down a skyscraper if placed properly, and the amount that the Pelicans were dropping were quickly turning the area outside the city into a moonscape, except this particular moonscape was littered with bloody chunks and glowing piles of hot, twisted metal from the crude armor of the Urgals. Hornet attack craft streaked in low from the _Dawn_, firing rockets from their rocket pods and spraying thousands of depleted uranium slugs into the mass of bodies, turning them into yet more bloody fragments. And yet, the tide kept coming, almost as if the Urgals were under a spell.

'Vadam flexed his mandibles, wondering why they didn't stop and run when faced with the overwhelming firepower the UNSC/NC forces unleashed into their midst. It was different from what the Humans did during the Human-Covenant war, where the humans were fighting for their right to live. These creatures on the other hand threw themselves into their weapons without regard for their own lives. Maybe magic had something to do with it. He shook his head. Magic was impossible, and was little more than a human fantasy. That's when he got the call from Cortana.

"Arbiter, this is Cortana, come in please."

The Arbiter fired another mortar straight forward into the mass of flesh before replying, "What is it construct?"

Cortana sent him the data, before continuing, "We have data on two new enemies on the battlefield. They are of a race called Shades, and they look like humans only with very pale skin and crimson eyes and hair. Targets are reported to be extremely strong and proficient in all types of melee, arcane and mental combat. We need you and the Chief to take them out, and maybe that will break the morale of this army. The closest one is 300 meters directly in front of you. And be careful. This one is armed with a very large scythe, and the only way to kill them is to skewer their hearts on your Energy Sword."

The Arbiter checked his melee weapon of choice, noting that it was fully charged and ready. "Very well, I shall go and destroy this 'Shade'. Is there any method of which I can defend my mind from intrusion?"

Eragon's voice came over the link, saying, "Just concentrate on something, like a piece of poetry or your armor. As long as your concentration doesnt slip, you should be fine." Thel growled his acknowledgment.

He opened a comm channel to his troops covering him and shouted, "Fall back to the city and assist with the defense. I have new prey to deal with."

One of his troops nodded, "Good luck Arbiter." The group ran back to their borrowed Mongooses and Ghosts before streaking back to the city, firing behind them the entire time. With this lull in activity from the tank, several Kull rushed forward and were immediately mowed down by the auto-cannons, the plasma burning them and cooking their flesh from the inside out. One Kull managed to get behind the tank and took a swing at the vulnerable power core, severing the plasma line feeding the mortar and rendering it useless. He backed up and lowered the tank, crushing the beast under over fifty tons of metal, before he charged forward, flattening Urgals and splattering their remains all over the thick frontal armor.

With a roar, the captured Seraph fighter blew by overhead and released a plasma charge, the small ball of near ultraviolet fire expanding into a boiling sapphire lance before it plowed into the ground ahead of him, fanned out, and ignited every Urgal directly in his path. The Arbiter continued his charge forward, smashing his way through the carbonized remains, watching in a mix of fascination and slight disgust as the charred bodies disintegrated into blackened fragments. The Urgals noticed that he was coming and who he was going after, and opened a path for him to go meet his doom.

Within a few moments, the Shade was visible on his view screens, a large area around him clear of Urgals, indicating they did not like the crimson-haired individual. He chose this moment to land the tank, before shutting it down and putting in a lockout key so none of the creatures could use it.

The Urgals around him backed away after seeing precisely what the hellion that ravaged their forces so looked like. They did not want to fight the Arbiter, and this notion was increased exponentially as 'Vadam pulled out his energy sword and lit it, the blade glowing white hot.

The Shade didn't waste time getting his mouth going, speaking in a smooth voice that made 'Vadam's skin crawl. "So this is what the Varden sends out to fight me, a freak in a fancy vehicle. Have they seriously sunk that far? I mean, I thought they would send out their precious Dragon Rider to fight me or Durza. Seems their new pet is little more than a coward. You on the other hand, I think Galbatorix would pay a great deal to have you under his control. Do please tell me your name, I would love to hear it before I pound you into submission"

'Vadam leaped off the tank and came thundering down about ten meters from the Shade before answering, "I am Thel 'Vadam, also known as the Arbiter of Sanghelios, and leader of all Neo-Covenant. Now give me yours, creature, before I put an end to you."

The Shade flourished the monster scythe before replying, "I am Gurzag, Shade of the Spine and death of the Varden."

'Vadam gave a derisive snort. "Looks to me you are little more than a loud-mouthed human with a bad sense of fashion."

Gurzag came to a screeching halt, and snapped around. "On second thought, creature, I think I'll kill you anyways."

The Arbiter barely managed to get the sword up in time to block the scythe as it screamed towards him, staggering from the force of the blow. The scythe was unharmed, and the Shade grinned, baring razor sharp fangs for teeth. "Enchanted blade. Nothing can harm it, and yet it is as light as a feather. Makes it all the more easy for me to kill my prey."

The Arbiter used the opening that Gurzag running his mouth granted him and swung his left fist with all the strength at the Shade. Faster than any normal human and almost as fast as a Spartan, the creature whirled away, nimbly avoiding the blow. Not letting his missed attack throw him off balance, 'Vadam spun in the same direction of the punch, bringing his energy sword around to come smashing into the handle of the scythe. Gurzag stopped the energy blade, turning it to the side and bringing the super sharp point of the scythe around to hit the Arbiter on the side. The shields on his armor took the brunt of the hit, stopping it cold, the protective barrier glimmering silver as it absorbed the impact, and he used the opening to slash at the Shade. The superheated plasma eagerly ate into the armor of Gurzag, carving a deep line from shoulder to hip, revealing the Shade's dirty white skin. Gurzag looked down at his wrecked armor. "Impressive. Surely you can do better!" Both combatants quickly began trading blows at lightning speed, each blade a deadly arc seeking the flesh of the wielder's opponent, yet being denied. During the furious exchange, the Shade attempted to hijack Thel's mind, only to find a shimmering wall almost exactly like the protective barrier surrounding the Sangheili warrior. Thel laughed, a deep booming sound that caused nearby Urgals to scatter, laughing at the Shade's pitiful attempts to kill him. He paid for that almost immediately when the scythe came screeching up from below and smashed broadside into his skull, sending him flying and coming crashing down onto the tank. 'Vadam groaned as all the wind was knocked out of him from the force of the impact, and wasn't made any better by the fact his head felt like John had used it as a punching bag. _By the Gods, this creature is as strong as the Spartan!_ The thought flashed through his mind as he struggled to recover from the blow. Next thing he knew, the Shade had grabbed him by the back of his armor and had hurled him nearly fifty feet away from the tank.

"You know," Gurzag contemplated. "I was beginning to enjoy this. If I had more time, I'd just love to torture you, and maybe learn something of that interesting armor of yours. Any normal person would have been killed by my scythe, but that armor seems to have some sort of protective qualities about it. Very interesting indeed."

The Arbiter pushed himself up and rocketed across the distance between him and the Shade within a second, grabbing the scythe and wrenching the weapon out of Gurzag's hands, hurling the repulsive weapon away and deep into the chest of an unfortunate Kull. Gurzag cursed and roared, "Garjzla!"

The huge ball of crimson light slammed into the Arbiter's shields, causing him to stagger backwards from the force of the strike. Another ball slammed into his shields again, and the alarm indicating the protective silver barrier was about to fail went off in his helmet. Another sphere raced towards him, but this time he dodged it, the ball instead striking the Wraith tank and causing it to explode in a fireball.

_What the hell is that? _The Arbiter chose the human phrase to appropriately voice his opinion at his first exposure to magic. _The ability to throw light with just a word? That's impossible!_

Gurzag noticed the stunned look on 'Vadam's face and grinned evilly. "I guess this is your first time seeing magic? Oh don't worry, it will be your last!"

Before he could do anything though, he felt a light tap on his shoulder. Gurzag spun around to see a seven foot tall metal giant standing right behind him, an energy sword in hand and looking very intimidating, but failing to faze the Shade. Gurzag raised an eyebrow. "So, another person wishes to challenge me? And who might you be?" John simply thrust his fist forward with a certain digit raised.

"Shame, I'd really like to know who you are. _Reisa knifr!_" The monster scythe slammed back into Gurzag's hand, and not a moment too soon as John swung the plasma blade, only to have it get stopped by the handle of the scythe. Gurzag broke and then swung the blade towards John with superhuman strength, air singing as the blade passed, only to watch John back flip over the arc of metal. The Shade attempted to reverse the swing, but John wasn't about to let him get in another attempt, and thrust his blade towards the creature. Before he could impale the crimson-haired being, Gurzag extended his right hand and shouted, "_Thrysta!"_. John was launched backwards, shields collapsing, into the seething mass of Urgals. The beasts immediately set upon the Spartan, only to die as the super soldier swung the energy sword and cut all of them in half. Gurzag gently clapped both hands together. "Very impressive. I wonder what else you can do." John simply walked up to the arrogant Shade and slugged him, putting all of his strength into the hammer blow. Gurzag's head snapped back, shortly before his entire body flew more than a hundred feet away from the area, crashing down on the Kull surrounding the combatants. The evil being shook the crushed object that once was his skull, groaning at the force of the punch. No normal human should be able to punch that hard. It had felt like Shruikan had used his head as a chew toy.

After a moment, his head had rebuilt itself back into its original shape. The crimson eyes glared daggers at John and Thel, wishing them many years of torment for that. Both Heroes lit their energy swords, and shifted into combat postures, waiting for him to make the next move.

Gurzag summoned the Scythe and charged, taking aim at the Spartan with a fast uppercut. John blocked the blade as 'Vadam moved in and slashed at the Shade. Gurzag blocked the blow with the handle, twisting the blade around and whipping it forward, only to meet that shimmering silver barrier once again. Within seconds all three combatants were at it, trading blows at speeds invisible to the normal eye and with a fury that made a hurricane look like a light drizzle. Every blow successfully landed either glanced off a shield or was rapidly regenerated, not giving each side an edge. The blades themselves transformed into blazing arcs of light, deadly in their intent, singing the song of death as the weapons sliced through the air.

Gurzag jumped up and away from the two, trying to get some distance between these two inhuman creatures. Nothing should be able to fight him like this, and yet both of them did it, moving as one and giving him no quarter. Their mental defenses were impossible to break, making an attack on that vector impossible as well. Gurzag frowned. This was getting annoying._ Very_ annoying.

Before he could make his next move, something small, and very fast moving object blew a 6 inch hole through his left shoulder, taking his arm off and leaving the scythe in just one hand. Another one struck the blade of his weapon, ripping a hole through it as the wards finally failed. He turned around and saw, all the way up at the top of the city in the Dragon hold, _more_ of the metal beings, each one pointing a long black weapon straight at him. Contrails traced the path of the bullets that hit him to these weapons, indicating that they were the ones that had shot him.

Gurzag cursed, and then began preparing a powerful spell, stupidly forgetting about the Spartan right behind him. John saw his opportunity, and he had no qualms taking it. With just a slight bit of venom, he rammed the blade right through Gurzag's back through the area where the heart would be on a normal human with enough force to lift the Shade up. John pulled Gurzag closer to him and growled, "My name is John-117, in case you were still wondering," before twisting the blade and wrenching it through the right side of Gurzag's rib cage before launching a brutal kick to the Shade's back.

Gurzag stumbled, a voiceless howl on his lips, and he stared at the green giant who had killed him. "How?" the dying Shade croaked. A moment later, he let loose an inhuman shriek as the spirits inside his body blew him apart and raced away.

The moment this happened, every Urgal on that side of the battlefield looked in that direction, watching as the spirits that once possessed Gurzag raced away. John pointed at the nearest one, before challenging it with a motion of his hand and raising the lit energy sword over his head not unlike a scorpion would raise its tail. Every Urgal shook their heads and then ran for it, not wanting to meet the two beings that had taken on their commander and won.

John walked over to 'Vadam and asked, "Are you alright?" The Sangheili warrior groaned, but nodded. "I have seen better days Spartan, but I am fine. Was that the other humans shooting at that creature?"

John nodded and added, "They were my teammates."

'Vadam's mandibles dropped. "_More_ Spartans? How?"

John shook his head. "They didn't have time to explain, with this," he motioned to the mountains of bodies and shattered flesh littering the floor of the opened volcano, "and the fact they apparently had one hell of a ride getting here in the first place."

A Pelican dropship cruised up to them, and in their helmets they heard Cortana say, "Get on, you two still have to kill the other one."

* * *

Fred, Linda, Kelly, and the others that came with them listened as Cortana gave them the rundown on the situation, as well as the outcome of the Human-Covenant war, explaining that the Neo-Covenant forces in the city were allies, and that they should assist them. Naturally, the Spartan-IIIs had some trouble with this, as most of them hated the Covenant's guts, and would like to see nothing more than said guts splattered on the ground. So they were less than pleased to know that the very forces they were trained to fight against were now their allies. Keyes shot them down on the matter, stating that now was not the time and if they wanted their vengeance they were not going to get it. Their immediate job now was to defend the city from the attacking Urgals.

Knowing they had no choice but to obey Keyes, all of them had armed themselves with energy swords, and were making swift and deadly work of the seething horde of monsters, cutting them down with a speed and precision that defied all that the Dwarves knew. The Spartans seemed to move like water, flowing from one place to another, leaving nothing but dead bodies in their wake. What Dwarves were fighting suddenly found themselves without victims as the squad of Spartans streaked through, claiming all Urgals for themselves and leaving no survivors. The rumor that there were more of these hellions had already reached the main body of the army and their morale finally began breaking. Parts of the horde began fleeing back into the tunnels, only to find that the _Dawn_ was not letting them get away easily, its 50mm point defense cannons serving to rain death down on them, slicing into their ranks and blowing them to pieces.

What Urgals did manage to get inside the city didn't last much longer as the group tore through them, their remains bursting into flame as the superhot plasma that formed the blades of the energy swords flash-heated their flesh.

Within thirty minutes most of the army was gone, either dead from the weapons of the UNSC or Varden, or having successfully fled away from the meat grinder through the tunnels.

* * *

Only about three thousand Urgals remained on the battlefield, all of them surrounding Durza. The Shade bared his pointed teeth at the carnage around him, seething inside. How had this perfect attack, with all of the Urgal flesh-golems and real ones at his disposal as well as the lesser Shade, been hammered back with such devastating results? A loud buzzing above him answered his question, as the front of his small group vanished under the hail of supersonic pieces of metal. He looked up to see what looked like some sort of gray flying machine, and farther up and behind it was a monstrous gray and black behemoth. Something on both vehicles buzzed angrily, and more of his Urgals flew apart.

Durza let loose a snarl of rage, before deciding to deal with this little problem himself. The smaller gray machine was going to be the first to go, and charging for the shot, Durza roared, " Garjzla!"

The ball of crimson death sledgehammered into the Pelican with more force than a train, ripping it in half and sending both flaming pieces crashing into the ground. All of the fuel inside went up in flames, and with a flash of fire the two wrecked halves of the dropship exploded, metal fragments scything their way through yet more of the Kull surrounding him. Durza smirked at the burning wreckage, and then began to contemplate the destruction of the larger machine now raining more of those fast metal pieces at him and his forces. A few muttered spells later, and the rain of metal that came from the larger machine stopped dead about ten feet above the Kull, shielding them from the attacks raining down from above and now from the city.

One of the gates in front of him slid open to reveal another large metal vehicle, this one looking vaguely like a scorpion. It moved swiftly on tracked pods, the upper half turning to point the barrel at the Kull. The barrel boomed, and what looked like a large mushroom of metal bounced off the barrier protecting his forces. Stopping it had its price, as Durza grunted from the energy drain it inflicted on him. Another boom followed, and another rapidly moving piece of metal struck the wards, glancing off them and racing away . Durza cursed the machine, before attacking it with another ball of energy, grinning evilly as it exploded, killing the driver and blasting his remains all over the wall.

He paused as the forces of the Varden and their unknown allies on the wall began shooting at him and his forces, noting that it was taking next to no effort to turn the tide of fireballs and metal flying his way. A thought pushed itself into his mind, and another evil grin split his face.

He moved away from his forces and got next to the largest pile of remains, nodding in approval of the destruction the newcomer's weapons had wreaked on the cretin. Maybe after he finished killing them he could examine these weapons and take a few for himself. But for now, he had to take that thing down and subdue that wench of a dragon. He raised a hand over the pulverized remains and said, voice shifting into multiple black tones, shouted, "_Anori Draumr abr Sundablaka it ator Virliger!"_

A thousand screams rended the air, howls of the vanquished and the damned as they were wrenched from their places of rest in the afterlife. All of them began to condense into the pile of bodies, which took on a black cast, darkening and disintegrating into dust. This black dust began to spiral slowly on the ground, forming a vast whirlpool of dark magic. A loud screeching came from the portal, followed closely by the wing beats of some massive creature. With a screech of victory, The Beast rocketed out of the portal, all black cloud and teeth, undefined wings pounding the air. The Shadow Wyrm landed in front of him as Durza cackled in glee. It had been a while since he had loosed this terror on the world, and he knew his pet was hungry. Durza pointed at the _Dawn_, and without further ado, the Beast charged towards its prey, black fire streaming from its maw.

* * *

well? What you think? reviews are welcome, and thanks to all the readers who have read this already.

And in case you guys were wondering, yes i did bring in Stargates. I needed a plot device and it was the first thing to pop into my head. And it may be a signal of things to come ;) Dunno, still havent decided on it yet.

Gurzag is OC, i thought the name fit nicely for a Shade, and since this is a "young" shade, I figured I'd make him one arrogant asshole.


	3. Shadeslayers

zomg nearly 1300 hits? damn Inheri X Halo must be some hot shit. I try to do my best.

Alrighty, and now for the review responses:

SilentMav: Ive personally wanted to do this as the only other one worth reading is meh at best, and since i fully intend on aiming for the 100k word mark, you will get your wish. *off to hunt for PDF's of all the books so i dont have to refer to inheriwiki every other paragraph*

Everwolf: *salutes* you got it

Master555: Yes, i am entirely aware of the purpose of the 9th chevron. It is solely meant for dialing _Destiny_. With almost 2 quadrillion possible 9 glyph permutations, why not use one for something else? And yes, the Ancients will have a part to play. Yes, i know they dont see anything when going through the wormhole. It would be rather bland though to not describe one of the most awesome sci-fi sequences ever while they are in transit.

A/n: I brought in the Cloud o Fangs from the movie, and this time Saphira will have something that will give her one hell of an edge instead of getting smacked down by it. What is that something? Read and find out :)

* * *

Turn of the Tides Chapter 3: Shadeslayers

Eragon watched in awe as the Chief and Arbiter battled the second Shade, and breathed a sigh of relief as the Spartan impaled the foul creature on one of their mysterious energy blades. Taking down one of those creatures was no mean feat, having only been successfully pulled off by fewer than 5 individuals, and that was only after they had trained themselves for the encounter. Those two on the other hand, simply jumped into the brawl, and came out the other end alive.

Then his mind began to race. The Spartan had told him that he was a warrior of great and terrible capability, and had claimed he had personally taken an impossible number of lives. After watching the very one-sided fight against the Urgals and the Shade, he was beginning to believe that this Spartan wasn't lying.

A loud growl from Saphira got his attention, the cerulean dragon shifting in discomfort as the nanites now coursing through her blood re-attached her severed wing, stitching flesh and bone back together as if it had never been chopped off in the first place.

"_Their medical technology is certainly something, isn't it?"_ The Rider mused. Saphira shifted again, replying, "_Indeed it is, little one. It is also rather uncomfortable. It feels like thousands of tiny ants are crawling through my wounds and taking tiny chunks of my flesh away."_

The hiss of an opening hatch drew their attention, and in walked Keyes, closely followed by several technicians and several flat machines holding up what appeared to be pieces of armor. The female commander walked up to them and asked, "Well, how are we doing? I hope you aren't feeling too uncomfortable." Saphira turned her head to face the Commander. "_I am feeling much better, thanks to the doctors. I may be sore for a few more days, and these nanites give my wounds an itch unlike anything else I have ever experienced.." _Keyes smiled slightly. The nanites did have a tendency to do that, she should know. It took the medical expertise of every single doctor onboard as well as the nanites to save her after Truth had shot her in the back with a Brute Spiker. That was one thing she wouldn't be forgetting any time soon.

"I would like to give you two a few days of rest on board this ship, but the situation outside merits your assistance." Keys motioned to the holotank, once more showing the map of the entire area. Most of the red was gone, either vanishing down the tunnels or ripped to pieces. A small cadre of Urgals surrounded the blazing dot that was Durza, the Urgals themselves being marked as red circles. What got his attention though was a red triangle streaking towards the holographic _Dawn_.

"_What is that?"_ Saphira asked. Cortana's voice came through the speakers in the holotank, tinged with a hint of worry. "It is what appears to be one ugly black..._ thing_, that the Shade spawned from the pile of bodies. One thing I can clearly see about it though, is that it's head is all teeth. Very big teeth. The rest though, it looks as if its shrouded in smoke."

_CLANG!_

Everyone looked up to the top of the hangar bay as something heavy crashed into the thick hull of the _Dawn._ The auto-cannons mounted on the outside immediately opened fire on the Beast, and everyone heard its screech of anger, loud enough to cause many to cover their ears to protect them from the noise. Eragon raised an eyebrow at Saphira. "_Feeling like fighting that thing?" _Saphira growled her affirmation, just as alarms began going off. Cortana appeared on the holotank again, this time a deep crimson. "Fangs apparently is taking great offense to us being here. It just melted the communications array with what looked like black fire, and is now trying for Cargo bay 4. There is also a considerable hull breach where the array used to be. Whatever that thing is using against us, it goes through Titanium-A like a a blowtorch."

Faint gunfire was soon heard from the cargo bay next door, along with shouts as what few Marines still on board fought against the Beast, all of which were soon drowned out by Fangs letting loose a loud screech of anger.

Saphira growled, the deck rumbling with the noise. "_I must fight it. That foul beast must not be allowed to roam free to slaughter as it pleases, but I cannot fight against something like that without some sort of protection."_ Keyes pointed at the armor on the carts and shouted over the groan of metal being torn asunder, "Get the armor on, and it will provide enough protection for this even though its not complete yet." A roar of exploding missiles drowned out everything else she said, and then the deck tilted violently. Cortana's hologram flickered for a few seconds and then vanished as the area lost power.

"Cortana, report!" Keyes struggled to keep herself standing as the ship pitched wildly.

"Fangs – _*static* _- dama- _*static*_ – Archer – " The line went dead.

Eragon was breathing fast. Whatever Durza had created was tearing this ship apart, and Saphira was the only thing capable of outflying it and taking the Beast down. He turned to Saphira, who was nosing the armor pieces, and said, "_Lets get you in that armor, and hope it keeps you alive._"

* * *

Durza grinned viciously as Fangs tore into the mysterious ship and began ripping it apart. The Shadow Wyrm always had a taste for havoc and destruction, and this was the first time Durza had released it since the Forsworn began their bloody campaign. It also had the advantage of making the Varden's allies turn their weapons towards Fangs, allowing him a straight shot to the city. With a wordless command, the remaining Urgals charged towards Tronjheim, eager for blood. The Varden and their friends would pay dearly for what they did to the army. They had made it nearly to the wall when the Varden's forces noticed how screwed they were. A shout went up just as the army began streaming through the shattered gate, attacking anything that moved, splitting up and streaming through the streets like a plague, leaving a merciless trail of death behind him.

Durza inhaled deeply of the smell of spilled blood. It was like a rare perfume to him, intoxicating yet rejuvenating. It was one of the few things that really got him going, and the first thing he wanted to do after entering the city was get his hands on one of those metal golems that had wasted Gurzag, bring it under his control, and take it to Galbatorix. The king would reward him handsomely for bringing him one of those creatures for study and possibly replication.

His wish was granted a few minutes later when one of them came thundering down in front of him, the impact cracking the pavement, a long black tube with a box at both ends (its the sniper rifle) in its hand and pointing straight at him. Durza grinned, before lashing out with a powerful mental spear at the golem's mind, expecting to find a very poorly defended and dull intelligence. Instead his assault plowed into a solid wall, stopping dead, and leaving him slightly stunned. The golem leveled its weapon at him, and fired, aiming for Durza's heart.

A quick burst of unspoken magic stopped the large bullet an inch from his chest, but before he could retaliate, a massive fist came speeding out of nowhere and hit him in his skull, sending him flying back over the wall and out of the city. Durza groaned in agony. It had felt like Shruikan had hit him with his tail again, only a thousand times worse. One of the golems stood on the wall, its golden visor the only thing of its face he could see. And even from this distance, he could feel the hostility from behind that reflective barrier. And from it, he knew fear for the first time.

* * *

The armor took a surprisingly short amount of time for Saphira to get into, and when she got it on, the dragoness knew there would be no other set of armor that she would wear. The armor that the dwarves had for her was simple, but very well crafted steel plate that was designed to cover all parts of her except her wings, but had the disadvantage of weight and the fact it took damage easily. _This _armor was much different. Instead of thick metal plates, each panel of the armor was made of a material the Commander had called "ceramic/carbon-fiber composite", a material entirely alien to her but turned out was vastly stronger and lighter than simple forged steel. The plates went on over a undersuit that clung to parts of her body, forming a near second skin, and giving the plates something to attach to. The thickest plates went on her chest and back, overlapping and interlinking to form a strong second hide, with the panel behind where Eragon would sit containing the micro-fusion reactor salvaged out of what was left of the Chief's Mark V suit.

Thinner and more elaborate plates went on her tail, with the tip of her tail being capped off with the head of a weapon the UNSC called a Gravity Hammer. Her forelegs were covered in a fine mesh of "titanium-A" and light armor plate as well as more of the undersuit.

Each elbow was given a wicked sharp, retractable spike about 5 inches long, allowing her to drive it into anything that had latched onto her back and kill it instantly. Her rear legs were covered in much bulkier plates that offered her hindquarters excellent protection against any marauding Urgals looking for a cheap shot. Her neck was covered in many thin interlocking plates, allowing her neck full flexibility without compromising the layer of protection around her body.

The headpiece was constructed of a single molded piece, with 3 long spikes behind her head as a crest, each one razor sharp and polished to a shine. The eye-holes had a thin, retractable transparent screen over them, a screen which served as the HUD for the armor system. On both sides of her mouth were a pair of tubes, their function currently unknown to her. The biggest boon though was what the armor did for her wings. A series of glowing panels lined the leading edges, and the moment the power cables were connected to the rest of the suit, a skintight glowing membrane erupted over the surfaces of her wings, before fading out. The panels were shield generators, and they provided a much needed defense against arrows and other sharp pointy things.

Saphira craned her head around, looking at the rest of the armor and noting that it was almost as if she wasn't wearing almost a ton of metal and composite. It was as if the suit was enhancing her considerable strength, and she welcomed it. The shields over her wings didn't even affect how the air flowed over them, allowing the dragon to keep her full maneuverability.

She snorted in satisfaction, and turned back to Eragon and Keyes, both of which were examining the armor themselves.

A voice came in through her ear, and the dragon turned to see who was speaking, only to see nothing.

"I've installed a communications package into the armor, allowing you to hear what we are telling you." Cortana's voice was fuzzed with a bit of static, but was relatively easy to hear. "The suit is incomplete, but I can still power up and initialize some systems to make it useable. Give me a moment."

A loud bang directly above them got their attention. The Titanium-A plates were beginning to glow red hot, and they all had a foreboding feeling about what was burning through the hull. "Armor initialization is at 45%. Hold on..."

Saphira bellowed a challenge at Fangs, who responded by redoubling his efforts to get through to them. Drops of metal were beginning to fall down off the ceiling, and Saphira had to step back to avoid getting it on her. The screen over her eyes flared white, before text began scrolling rapidly over them. A second later, a series of gauges appeared in her view, among them, Wing Shields, Tail Hammer, and Plasma Booster. Another bar appeared exclusively in her right eye screen, this one showing the status of the Armor in full color. Everything turned solid for a moment before fading to mere ghosts of themselves, allowing her to see beyond them and yet get the information she needed. "Armor Initialization at 95%."

Fangs had managed to open a hole almost fifteen feet wide above them, and with a roar came crashing down on Saphira. The azure dragon rolled to the side as Fangs came down, and then pounced on the stunned shadow beast, jaws reaching for its neck. A powerful kick from its hindquarters sent Saphira sprawling across the deck, only to recover and let loose a deafening roar.

Fangs split his toothy maw and exhaled, letting loose a black stream of fire at Saphira. Saphira retaliated in kind, her sapphire inferno clashing with Fangs' black flame. The two pillars of flame clashed together and exploded outward, melting metal and forcing Eragon and Keyes to dive for cover, their skin blistering from the hellishly hot flames. Both beasts kept up their streams of fire, but Saphira was weakening, the stream wavering. If that black fire touched her, she would die, super-armor or not. She pushed harder, and then learned the purpose of the Plasma Booster.

The two tubes on either side of her helmet extended forward into the withering stream of flame coming from her maw, before expelling their contents of superheated hydrogen plasma. Within a second the weakening stream of fire tripled in strength, and tripled again, the plasma igniting readily and producing flames that could have vaporized rock. Fangs suddenly found himself on fire, and the Beast made a dash to the open bay door and bailed out.

* * *

Durza was thinking second thoughts about attacking the city. First, almost the entire army had been destroyed, then his second attack was stopped cold by those armored beings and their inhuman allies, and now he was getting juggled back and forth between the armored giants, each one hitting him with a blow that would have instantly killed a normal human and sending the Shade flying. After the fourteenth hit he finally managed to counter the creature before it hit him, sending it flying backwards into a wall and causing said wall to collapse on top of it. The other being pointed a T shaped weapon at him, which spat lighting and blew gaping holes into his chest and shoulder. Durza retaliated in kind with a ball of crimson light, blasting the creature backwards, collapsing its protective shield and scorching the metal underneath.

The Shade looked around, seeking out any more of those beings, when the ground beneath him shuddered. _Now what?_ He thought exasperatedly. The entire city shuddered, and above the noise of falling masonry and collapsing structures, the mighty whine of the machine underneath Farthen Dur was heard powering up once more.

* * *

Rtas 'Vadum stood on the bridge of his mighty Assault Carrier, overseeing the massive operation to bring the Spartan and Arbiter home. He had a grudging respect for the Demon, having met him in battle multiple times and escaped alive every time. When both him and the Arbiter failed to return through the Portal, the captured Forerunner dreadnought was placed back into its receptacle on the Artifact, and they attempted to activate the device once more. Instead, the Dreadnought's reactors shut down, apparently suffering from some damage taken during the fight on the Ark. The problem with the Artifact was that the Forerunner relic required a colossal amount of power, power that only the Dreadnought could provide. So instead, both the Humans and the Neo-Covenant forces had combined their technological might to provide power for it, and after a surprisingly short amount of time, initiated the firing sequence for the Portal.

The Fleetmaster clicked his remaining mandibles together, anxious to get this over with. The Huragok had told him that even if they poured all their power and resources into fueling another portal, if they did get it working, it wouldn't last long, a few minutes maybe, but asking for longer was not going to happen.

Above the Keyship, the forebodingly familiar storm clouds began to swirl over the Artifact, only this time they grew much faster, the activation not being held back by some insane megalomaniac hell bent on the destruction of the galaxy. Below, the massive triangular panels that supported the portal began their slow rise off the ground once more, accompanied by a massive shockwave, one that knocked the smaller ships in the area about and caused the _Shadow of Intent_ to list to port. The Assault Carrier righted itself just as the Forerunner dreadnought was consumed with a holy white light.

* * *

The door to the cargo bay was bashed to the side as Saphira chased the Beast out of the _Dawn_ and into the skies above Tronjheim. Below them, the massive machine that brought the UNSC here began to power up, brilliant lights streaming up from the fissures and holes in the ground. Fangs was grazed by one of these streams of light and gave a screech of pain, the cloud that covered his frame being blasted away to reveal a skeletal creature, little more than flying bones. The cloud immediately re-covered Fangs, who dived, trying to escape the enraged dragoness and the blistering beams of light.

Eragon watched from the back of the Pelican he was on as Saphira continued to battle the beast, cringing every time the monster had her and sighing with relief as his companion broke free, often with a brutal bash from the Gravity Hammer attached to her tail. Ahead of them, Tronjheim shuddered again as the machinery underneath the city prepared to drop it into the heart of the battlefield. Keyes turned to the pilot and shouted, "Get us in there as fast as you possibly can." The pilot nodded and pushed the throttles forward, the pelican's engines pitch increasing in response. Eragon just hoped he would be able to get to Durza in time before that monster killed anyone else.

The Shade watched the gray-green dropship cruise towards his location, knowing exactly who was on board and looking forward to the fight. He drew his sword just as the dropship landed, and the moment Eragon stepped outside he went into a combat stance. And then did a double take. Eragon was decked out from head to toe in the same combat armor as several of the Varden's mysterious allies, the olive drab metal dully reflecting the fires that had now broken out all over the city. The metal plates covered all critical parts of Eragon's body, with a fabric embedded with carbon-fiber serving to bridge the gap between the plates. Zar'roc was grasped in Eragon's right hand, and on both of his arms was a glowing disk, their purpose unknown to Durza. The Shade stared for a moment, and then let loose a booming peal of laughter.

Everyone and everything still alive in that section of the city turned to the direction of where the evil laugh was coming from, paralyzed with fear. That laugh was the stuff of nightmares, and reminded many of the UNSC and Covenant forces of Gravemind, only more foul.

Durza smirked at the young Rider. "So, you have made a few new friends and got some of that interesting armor. Tell me, little Rider, what makes you think you stand a chance of defeating me?" A loud crash behind him told of the arrival of the Spartans, each impact of man and machine sending tremors through the ground in addition of the tremors generated by the machine beneath the city. Eragon nodded to the armored giants, while Durza gawked at the supersoldiers. He didn't stare long, because the Spartans, as one, all activated Energy swords and began moving to encircle him. Durza let loose another chilling laugh, bringing the Spartans to a pause, each one wondering in their own way what the creature found so amusing. Above them, Saphira hit Fangs again with the Hammer, sending the Beast into a building and out through the other side.

"I am greatly looking forward to this. Lets keep you all busy." His form blurred, and without warning there were sixteen Shades, all exact copies of each other, all with the same malicious grin on their faces.

The clones attacked just as the City began its descent into the ground, the city groaning with the immense structural stress placed on the mile wide cone of rock and stone.

* * *

Above the city, Saphira and Fangs were still going at it, neither flying beast backing down and both landing devastating blows on the opponent. The difference was that the incredible armor provided by the UNSC, even though it wasn't complete, was quickly proving its worth to the she-dragon. Already, the flexible neck pieces had saved her from several otherwise fatal bites, the elbow spikes were greatly handy in evicting the monster from her back, and the Plasma Booster gave phenomenal strength to her flame. That was one tool in the suit she liked to use, enjoying the searing ionized gas as it spewed from her maw into the face of the dark beast attempting to kill her. The Gravity Hammer proved its worth as well, the heavy energy mace giving her tail a devastating advantage, allowing her to smash the beast away from her into objects and the ground.

Both fliers crashed into each other again, the Beast latching onto the armor on her belly and furiously clawing at it, not understanding that the composite plate was nigh invulnerable to its attack. Saphira rolled hard and pulled up, throwing it off of her gut and vulnerable to a deadly blast of fire. The sapphire jet of plasma and flame erupted from her maw and streamed towards Fangs, who barely avoided it, only to become victim to the Gravity Hammer, the cudgel slamming the shadow into another beam of light, which in turn blew off its cloudy covering and revealing the near-skeletal creature within, tiny beady eyes on a head that consisted almost entirely of teeth burning with a black fury.

The dragoness used this opportunity to come crashing down on Fangs, her maw opened wide, and clamped down Fangs' neck, teeth scissoring through dark flesh and colliding against bone. The Beast screeched in agony and began thrashing hard, trying to break free from the blue dragon. As they spiraled out of the sky, Saphira noticed that the machine was powering up again, and got an idea.

* * *

The Shipmaster watched in awe as the Portal once more formed above the Artifact, and he gave a moment to reflect on the power the Forerunners once possessed, and then came to his senses. That was the reason the Covenant formed and ultimately split apart. Their blind devotion to the Prophets and the Forerunners is what nearly drove them into extinction. His kind would not make the same mistake twice.

Rtas gave a low growl, as the memories of the Prophet's betrayal began to bring his blood to a boil, before he stamped them out and composed himself. It wouldn't do to loose his focus in front of the crew.

He turned to one of the Huragok on the bridge and asked the creature, "How is the Artifact and Portal?"

A long series of chittering and squeaking, as well as flailing of the Engineer's 4 tentacles, came back as his response. Next to the engineer, one of the few Black Ops Unngoy, a bulky creature named Gazag, listened and read the Huragok's answer. "He said, 'The portal for now is stable, but it wont be for long. I am already detecting a feedback loop between the power generators on the ground and the Artifact. If we are to go through, it must be now.' Excellency, you seriously aren't thinking of going through are you?"

If any other Unngoy had asked the Sangheili Shipmaster that question, he would have used their body for target practice. Gazag was one of the precious few beings he trusted, the Grunt having saved his life multiple times and proven himself to be a steadfast commander. Thus, Rtas was inclined to answer.

"The Arbiter and Spartan are on the other side of that thing, wherever that other side may be. It is our duty to go and bring them home. And if they have been vanquished, it is our duty to avenge them." The other Sangheili around the bridge let loose throaty roars of approval, as did the Mgalekgolo pair behind him. The Grunt nodded, sighing behind his mask. _Sangheili and their honor,_ the Grunt thought, noting that the ship beneath him was already rumbling and accelerating towards the Portal. _It can be quite troublesome._

As they approached it, the _Shadow of Intent_ was hailed by Lord Hood aboard Cairo Station.

"Good luck Shipmaster, and Godspeed to you all."

With a flash of light, the _Shadow of Intent_ passed through the Portal, which soon afterwards, collapsed and faded.

* * *

Eragon gasped as he strained against Durza, the Shade and he in deadlock, neither giving way to the other. The city shuddered as it fell into the machine, throwing them both off balance. Durza didn't waste time, and lashed out with his sword, aiming for Eragon's gut. The Rider parried, only to take a fist to the face as the opening presented itself. Stars exploded across his vision, and he staggered back, trying to shake loose the effects of the hit. Durza wasn't that kind, and Eragon continued to back up on the defensive, his sword and arm shields flashing as he blocked and dodged the unnatural monster's murderous blade.

The Spartans were faring better than the Rider, their years of experience and combat prowess making itself apparent as the green armored humans went toe to toe with Durza. Some of them fought with Energy swords, while others made good use of their combat knives, the forged titanium-A alloy raining sparks everywhere as one intercepted and turned aside Durza's blade.

Fred moved his knife with a speed and precision that almost defied logic, each movement carefully calculated to turn aside the edge of the blade with minimal effort. The Spartan-IIs had learned quickly that the blades the Durza clones used made impossibly short work of their shields, and while their armor plates would take up the slack and absorb every hit, none of them were willing to take a chance of one of those things getting in a lucky shot through a gap between the plates. The Durza clone began to laugh like a madman as it let loose another flurry of slashes and stabs, only to have them turned aside before they even got close. Fred backed away to take stock of the situation, and noted that three of the clones, notably, the ones fighting Kelly, Linda, and John, were already gone, each one victim to an energy sword. The one attacking him charged, and soon both of them were at it again, blades flashing bright. Fred felt time around him slow, Spartan-time kicking in, enabling him to see things that were otherwise invisible to a normal person. The thin film of moisture on the Shade's head. The scratch in its blade, thin and sinewy. The gaping hole in the Shade's defenses, if he were to but take the arm off with a stroke of his knife.

The blade moved like lightning, invisible to all but a Spartan, and cleaved through the flesh at the arm, forcing Durza to drop the sword. Not letting it get a chance to even figure out what happened, Fred twisted the blade around, and rammed the 18 inch blade through Durza's heart, the tip erupting out of the back of the clone.

With a scream of agony, the Durza clone exploded and sent a ball of blackness streaking back towards the original, currently engaged with Eragon, the Rider holding his own, barely, against the supernatural creature. Around them, the Spartan-IIIs and their respective clones danced with death, combat knives and energy swords clashing against foul blades with murderous intent, both sides struggling to gain a purchase against the opponent's defenses. Fred watched grimly as 2 more of the clones fell to Ash and Olivia, their bodies disintegrating as the titanium blades of the knives did their work.

The city beneath his boots groaned and shuddered, the tremors knocking down loose masonry and causing the building which had been damaged by Fangs' impact to collapse, sending rubble crashing down on the combatants. Instead of running for cover, the Spartans and the clones simply began dodging the debris as they fought for supremacy, smaller chunks bouncing off their armor or deflected with magic and the larger ones simply avoided.

Fred was on the edge of that debris as the city continued to descend. Several theories on what was going on shot through his mind, and were promptly wiped away as the descent rate suddenly tripled. The Durza clones werent expecting the drop and the Spartans used that opportunity to quickly skewer them on various blades, one of the Spartans from team Katana even going so far as to disarm and then impale her opponent with his own blade.

Eragon had been expecting the drop and had jumped up into the air the moment the city began its rapid descent, using a brief burst of magic to hold himself up over the ground and giving the Shade something to try and wrap his head around. Durza countered that by jumping up on the debris falling and taking a swipe at Eragon, prompting the Rider to backflip away from the murderous Shade.

Eragon began running towards the center of the city underneath the Star Sapphire, seeking a more open arena and one not being pelted by falling debris. He made it to the center just as Tronjheim came to a shuddering halt, the millions of tons of rock and stone struggling to continue its fall. In the darkness, a pair of vibrant green elven eyes watched the Spartans mercilessly, and almost effortlessly slaughter the remaining Shades.

* * *

Outside the city, the intact panels rose off the ground once more, sheathed in their characteristic white energy, the machine below winding up in preparation to receive another Slipspace conduit and generate the exit portal. Saphira's plan required incredible timing to pull it off. Fangs so far had proven itself able to withstand her attacks, no matter how devastating they were, and come back for more, almost as if it fed off that sort of pain. The idea the dragoness had in her head was relatively simple: lure Fangs into the area which the portal would burst into being, and hopefully catch it either directly in the shock-front from it appearing, or have it within the portal when it activated, annihilating it. She checked the charge on her gravity hammer, noting the cudgel had one or two good strikes left before it drained.

Beneath her, Fangs snarled at the azure dragon which had caused him so much pain. Never had he dealt with something this tough, and it infuriated the creature to no end. With a roar he raced upwards, aiming for the belly of Saphira and letting loose a jet of boiling black fire, aiming right for the weak spots between the leg and torso plates. Saphira rolled to the side and returned the favor, the searing pillar of blue-white flame lancing towards the Beast and driving it exactly where she needed it to go.

Around them, massive thunderheads began to build, spiraling around the open area above the city, jagged tongues of lightning streaking out, causing the entire battlefield to gain a eerie flickering quality. Below, Tronjheim as well as the panels were completely ensconced in white energy, mere seconds from firing and opening the portal.

Fangs collided into her side and drove her down, not knowing that was the plan of the dragoness. They were right in the middle of where the portal would form, and the air was almost charged in anticipation. Saphira drove her spikes into the shrike attacking her, before blasting it with another searing pillar of fire. Fangs dodged upwards and dove back down to greet her.

_Come on_, she thought

Fangs drew closer, and the panels began to surge in brightness.

_COME ON!_

The panels blazed, and a shaft of light erupted from the peak of Tronjheim.

With a difficult midair flip, Saphira brought the hammer around and smashed it right into the head of Fangs, sending it careening upwards, right into the forming portal. It had a mere second to scream its rage before the explosively expanding hole in space consumed and annihilated it. Saphira let loose a roar of victory, before noticing that she was next, and she began to plunge down to the city, in a race in which the victor claims her life.

* * *

Eragon furiously parried and blocked every blow Durza sent towards him, most of the time barely, each strike feeling like an earthquake had struck them. The Shade cackled in anticipation of Eragon's defeat, and redoubled its efforts to bring the Rider down. Blow after blow was traded between the two, and Eragon was beginning to really feel the strain of the fight. Without warning a wonderful heat flooded his body, starting from a point on his right arm and ballooning to fill him full of raw energy. He blocked the next strike from Durza with more force than he normally should have, and the Shade grinned, fangs glinting in the light.

Eragon struck like lightning, with, blade, magic, and mind, and the Shade staggered backwards from the assault, barely getting his blade up and in the way of Zar'roc. The crimson blade began weaving a web of steel and fire around the scratched blade of the Shade, Durza now receiving that which he was just dishing out a few seconds ago. A blur of metal and suddenly both of them found them in deadlock, guards grinding against each other in a raw display of strength. Durza pushed as hard as he could and got what he gave, Eragon tapping the newfound surge of strength and using it to his advantage. He lashed out with a mental ray, and Durza responded in kind. For several seconds they remained locked together, only to break apart when the explosion from the opening portal slammed into them like the fist of god, blowing them both apart and stunning Eragon as he crashed facedown into the ground. Above him, the Star Sapphire cracked with a noise like a cannon blast.

As soon as the shockwave hit, Eragon breached Durza's mental defenses, and was immediately overwhelmed by the evil within, barely aware of the environment around him.

Durza sneered at the fallen rider, and then charged, his blade singing as the Shade worked it through the air.

_Hes coming..._

The Shade drew closer, a low mad laughter bubbling up from within Durza.

Eragon groaned, trying to move before the foul being got to him, sitting up just in time to feel the blade slash through the armor plates and lay open his back. Eragon screamed in agony, feeling the taint of the blade invade and begin consuming him.

* * *

Saphira felt her back burn, Eragons pain lashing back through the link between them, and as she plummeted away from the portal, the Star Sapphire caught her eye, and in that eye a plan gleamed. The Dwarves were not going to like this.

* * *

Durza stood over the writhing Rider, watching in glee as the boy thrashed around in pain. "It was a good fight, Shur'tugal, but I think its time you behaved and came with me." Durza extended a hand wrapped in blackness, preparing to send Eragon straight to the King. Something triggered his wards above them, and he glanced up.

Above them, the Star Sapphire exploded, ten foot shards of crystal expanding in a halo around Saphira, the she-dragon's maw encased by fire. Durza blanched at this, before he turned his hand towards Saphira, uttering a spell.

Eragon saw this, and a rage boiled within him, one that consumed his very self and gave him but one purpose.

With an unspoken command, Zar'roc returned to his hand and burst into flames, and before Durza realized his fatal mistake, Eragon plunged the blade through Durza's heart.

"That's for Brom!" Eragon hissed at Durza, who couldn't quite process the fact a young Rider had just killed him.

Durza staggered backwards, slipping off Eragon's blade, his skin beginning to peel and glow with an unholy blackness. It split, and for a brief moment, Durza was little more than a transparent shell encasing the malevolent blackness within him. With a scream made of nightmares, Durza exploded, the spirits that Carsaib had summoned breaking free and scattering. One of them blew through Eragon, and he fell unconscious to the ground, the darkness swallowing him.

* * *

Above Tronjheim, the _Shadow of Intent_ moved out of the portal, the massive Assault Carrier moving to get away as it began to collapse. Rtas looked at his view-screens somewhat forlornly, knowing that getting back home would be a long and difficult road. He just hoped it would be one worth walking.

* * *

A/n: If you think the Spartans in general are overpowered against the Durza clones, you are right in a way. Shades are said to have superhuman abilties, both with mind, body, and magic. Spartans are their equal in strength (w/o the armor), and win due to their greatly enhanced nervous system and reflexes, something which a Shade cannot match, although they can come close. Saphira's power armor is something which I wanted to throw in as I thought the normal armor, while good for ground assaults and hit and run attacks, limited the dragon while airborne, double that if it had taken heavy damage, and when you are dogfighting a shadow creature whose flame can burn through meters of titanium-A like tissue paper, you need all the maneuverability you can get.

If you are wondering why i did the clones, its because the Spartans needed something other than Urgals, what few there were remaining, to waste.

And I intend on dealing with the overwhelming amount of firepower currently there. No sense in oneshotting the king, although its well within the UNSC/NC's capabilities. HOWEVER, all in favor of seeing a Scarab deploy during the Battle of the Burning Plains, raise your hands.


	4. Wait, what?

Turn of the Tides Chapter 4: Wait, what?

A/n: Greetings, and welcome back to another installment of ToTT. For now, the Warhammer 40k-esque bloodbath is over, but come the "official" start of the Varden/Empire war, the bloodbath will be either incredibly disgusting, fucking awesome, or both. Most likely both.

Anyways, lets get this shit started.

_The memories were pure torment, pure chaos, nothing clearly defined except for the pain. He didn't know who he was, or here, only that he had the memories to keep him company. Memories of Carsaib, of Durza, of the one who brought much pain for his own amusement. The tide of evil crashed down on him, threatening to rip his floundering mind to pieces and scatter the jetsam across the sea of pain. He watched as Durza destroyed villages and towns with a wave of his hand, laughing maniacally as the people screamed in terror and pain. He watched as Arya was tormented and abused, with a fresh wave of sickening evil glee racing through his mind at the sight of it._

_The images howled away to be replaced with other acts of evil. He struggled against the tide, but his faltering strength against it was as nothing. A single bright memory, one of his own, stood out among the storm, a picture of his companion and partner, a beautiful blue dragon, her name lost to him. He latched onto it with all the strength of a dying man, and refused to let go. Another one of his memories, one of Roran and Garrow, both of them laughing down at the local bar at some joke one of the other patrons had said. This one spiraled in around him, and latched on, giving him strength. Another memory, one of him and Murtagh sparring and enjoying the fight, came in, hard and focused, cutting through the evil like a well sharpened sword, and latched on as well. More memories began to flood in, many of his own, each one connecting to the core that sought shelter amongst the insanity, each one contributing strength to the weakened mind of Eragon._

_The darkness around him recoiled, and then struck anew with a fury that made its previous thrashings look like mere ripples. Eragon struggled against the chaos that threatened to consume him, but the evil was irresistible, and his memories broke off and fell away._

_Without warning, the evil was suddenly repelled by a golden light, seemingly from everywhere and nowhere at once. No longer crippled or blocked by the remains of Durza, all that was Eragon came crashing back down on him, relieved to be reunited and whole once more. A gentle, but unquestionably powerful and vast presence surrounded Eragon, and as he continued to rebuild his sanity as much as possible, the presence spoke to him, causing his very being to tremble._

"Greetings Eragon Shadeslayer. What you have wrought will have many repercussions in the world, some good, some bad. But you have done an incredible service to the peoples of Alagaesia, and I salute you."

_Eragon compressed himself as much as he could, not exactly willing to trust this mysterious being. _"Who are you?"

_The golden presence surged in power, and the darkness clouding the edges of his mind vanished, destroyed by the light. _"I am Osthato Chetowa, the Mourning Sage, and Togira Ikonoka, the Cripple Who is Whole. I come to you in peace, and to save you from the evil you have slain." _The last part was in the Ancient Language, giving Eragon some measure of relief. _"Why have you done this?"

_The Mourning Sage seemed to smile and yet remain sad and pained at the same time. _"I have done what I can to save you, because you are the only one which can defeat the mad king lurking in Uru'Baen. All would have been lost if you had fallen, and for the briefest moments, you did. You are strong, Eragon, but not strong enough, nowhere near enough, to kill the King. Come to Ellesmera, to the elves. There I will reveal myself to you and teach you all that you must know to save us all. I must leave. Communicating at this distance is exhausting, and I cannot keep it up much longer. Farewell!"

_Something flashed across Eragon's mind, something which this Mourning Sage must know. _"Wait!" _The Sage 's connection weakened, but did not break. _"I am not alone in those who can kill Galbatorix. Newcomers from another universe with incredible weapons and warriors have come, and they can help." _Interest flooded across the steadily weakening connection. _"Warriors from another universe? How?"_ Eragon dug through his mind and showed the Sage several images of the UNSC forces, including their ship and the Spartans. The connection continued to become more and more tenuous, and Eragon knew it wouldn't last much longer. _"This is unexpected, but I sense no falsehood about these memories. If they prove to be steadfast allies in the dark times to come, then this may be over sooner than we expected." _The last words were faint and barely intelligible, and with a snap, the connection faded. Peaceful darkness flowed in, and Eragon slept without dreams._

* * *

Oromis gasped as the connection was severed, shaking as the magic took its toll on him. Behind him, Glaedr rumbled in concern for his companion's health. They both sat there in Oromis' house for a moment, processing those last bits of information the young Rider Eragon Shadeslayer had given them. These new warriors, those who stood taller than a Kull and moved faster and more gracefully than an elf, they were very powerful indeed. Their weapons were a complete and utter mystery to him, weapons that emitted loud bangs and flashes of fire and smoke, weapons that caused bodies to fly apart as if they had been hit with an explosive spell. And then there was the ship. It was an ugly thing, no smooth lines or brilliant colors and made of a dull metal, a vessel clearly constructed for the explicit act of waging war. Who knew what weapons it carried if the newcomer's infantry weapons could do what they did. It disturbed him, and Glaedr as well.

"What do you think old friend?"

The lifetime companion of Oromis rumbled, _"They are something which cannot be trifled with. I saw what they did to that army, destroyed in less time than it takes for Rhunon to forge a piece of armor. Humans should not have that level of destructive power in their hands. And yet the Shur'tugal said they wielded them with a skill that merited years of use and training. If I know anything about warfare, and I do, I would say they are no strangers to what they did... or possibly fell victim to."_

Oromis downed a small glass of faelnirv, feeling the liquor race through his body and warm him from the inside out. What Eragon showed him was a valuable piece of information, and he knew the Queen needed to know what he had learned. It would wait until tomorrow though. He was flat out exhausted, and his body and mind needed rest. Glaedr hummed, the deep rumbling shaking everything in the house, before moving into their bedroom and curling up in his hollow on the floor. Oromis stood and turned to look up at the stars for a brief moment, before he too, retired to sleep. If he had waited a few seconds longer, he would have spotted a moving speck of light coming over the horizon from the southeast.

* * *

Eragon awoke, but barely, still caught within the embrace of a deep sleep and not willing to let it go. A thick blanket was wrapped around him, and he snuggled deeper into its warmth. A moment later a small but viciously sharp pain near the crook of his right elbow interrupted his snooze, causing him to open his eyes and blearily look at his arm.

A small tube ran from a bag hanging next to his bed, through some equipment, and into his skin. The tube was secured by a strip of a gauze-like tape, keeping the needle from shifting too much. Around his bed, various machines and devices were arrayed, some of them covered in moving squiggling lines, others humming slightly. From these machines came wires that ran across his bed and to his chest, where they ended in a large white pad.

_'I must be in their medical facility. I guess Durza really got me good if I ended up here,'_ he thought. Around him on other beds were several other people, including a dwarf or two and one of the Sangheili, the latter sprawled face down on his bed, the reason being his back was covered in bandages. Even from his bed across the bay, Eragon could smell the charred flesh. That one must have had a bad date with Fangs.

A warm presence pressed itself against his mind, and Eragon happily opened up to Saphira, the dragoness humming through the connection, pleased that her charge had survived. _"Welcome back, little one."_

Eragon smiled as warmth flooded the connection. _"How long was I out?"_ Worry replaced the warmth. _"Well... you were out of it for three days, and nearly died twice. Angela, Trianna, and the UNSC doctors did all they could to help, and even then it was barely enough. But we won."_

Eragon thought about the battle, and asked, _"How bad is the damage to the city? And how mad are the dwarves at you for destroying Isidar Mithril?"_

In the cargo bay, Saphira snorted, a thin puff of smoke lancing from her nostrils. _"Its very bad, and they are considerably angry at me, especially the clan __Az Sweldn rak Anhûin__. Fortunately they cannot get up here, as I've been told the _Dawn, _not only within the _Shadow of Intent_'s cargo bay, is about fifty thousand feet above the ground. I thought about jumping out this high and diving as fast as I could, but their rather gruesome description of what would happen to me changed that."_

Eragon smiled, and was about to tell her about meeting with Oromis in his dreams when a nearby holotank flared to life, Cortana doing a check on him seeing that he had awoken. "Well well well, sleeping beauty has awoken. How are you feeling?"

"Like I just got my back laid open by a psychotic possessed abomination." Eragon replied truthfully. Now that he had tried to move, his back burned with pain. Cortana let a brief flicker of worry pass across her face, before she checked his vitals again. "Well, considering what Durza did to you, I am impressed you managed to kill him. From what I've been told, the race of beings known as Shades are notoriously hard to kill. The fact you did it with your injury is more impressive still."

Eragon sighed, his back rippling with fire as he did so, causing him to grunt with the pain. One of the machines next to him gave a slight hiss, and a numbing sensation flooded his body, eliminating the pain. Cortana saw his confused look, and said, "Just some basic painkillers. It should help with the pain. A scar like that would have to hurt."

Eragon's hand flew to his back, and was rewarded with what felt like a hard, knotted line, running from his right shoulder to left hip. He felt the wound, feeling all the little knots and bumps, letting his hand wander over the damage done by Durza, wincing as he realized just how close it came to killing him. It was a high price to pay for the destruction of a great evil.

He turned to Cortana, who sighed. "We did the best we could, but every time we tried to seal the wound, the stitches would melt from whatever Durza's sword put in you. Eventually we had to let that woman Angela do whatever she could with her medicinal plants, and it seemed to work. However..." The AI hesitated

Eragon began to feel very uneasy at her hesitation. "What?" He asked loudly

"We have determined that whatever Durza did to you will have permanent effects, most likely very painful ones. There is some nerve damage throughout your nervous system unlike anything I have seen or know of, but if the damage is aggravated in the wrong way, say through excessive bodily strain, it can cause those damaged nerves to misfire into a vicious feedback loop. In short, if you participate in another fight or battle, the strain alone can cripple or kill you, let alone your opponent getting in a cheap shot while you are down."

Eragon groaned as he flopped back down onto the bed. How was he supposed to perform his duties as a Rider in a state like this?

Eragon looked over to the AI. "Is getting up and walking around considered 'excessive bodily strain'?"

She grinned and said, "Nope, you still have to walk around and deal with all the other little niceties that I hear comes with your position. Speaking of which, the Commander and the Shipmaster wish to speak with the leadership of the Varden, and they want you to come with them."

Eragon got a look on his face that clearly said he did not want to deal with politicians, especially right now. Cortana had to do all she could to not burst out laughing. After a moment she got control over herself, and motioned for Eragon to get up. As he sat up the door to the medical bay hissed open, and a empty wheelchair rolled on, motors whirring quietly.

After securing his clothes around him, Eragon sat himself down on the robotic wheelchair, which immediately spun around and headed for the door.

As Eragon rolled down the hallways of the ship, he took the opportunity to examine the vessel and its occupants. The ship itself was the same drab gray color that was the outer hull and cargo bay, with what few splashes of color belonging to the screens and displays or the signs painted on the floor. Everything had a sharp, clear surface to it, with the grain in the metal clearly visible. The people on board moved with a purpose, the Marines jogging laps around the ship to maintain their health, the technicians busy rewiring circuits and repairing systems, and, as he rolled by one of the holes in the hull, mechanics welding thick plates of metal to the gaps where the previous battles and Fang's attack peeled back the meters of hull like it was made of tissue paper.

As he rolled into Cargo Bay 2, Saphira lifted her head up and stretched, a shudder rippling from her triangular head all the way to the tip of her tail. Nearby, several other technicians continued to work on her armor, recharging the Gravity Hammer and Plasma Booster while they wired in power circuitry between the micro-reactor and the aforementioned weapons while at the same time implementing proper upgrades and form fitting armor plate. One of the technicians was complaining about the fact Saphira's armor was little more than spare experimental Pelican that was "a bitch" to work with. Outside, the purple and silver metal of the _Shadow of Intent_'s massive cargo bay was visible, mostly through the melted and battered remains of the bay door.

Cortana's voice came up through the nearest speaker buried in the hull of the ship. "Saphira's armor is currently undergoing retrofitting with better fitting armor plate as well as some other goodies, and the original saddle got shredded during the fight. We've constructed a new one that should hold up in coming battles. But for now, Commander Keyes is waiting for you out in the cargo bay."

Eragon nodded as he eased himself out of the chair, wincing slightly as his other injuries flared through the fading numbness of the painkillers, before he hauled himself up to Saphira's back, and sitting on the new saddle. After strapping himself in, Saphira stood up and made her way over to the hull breach. Cortana's voice called out, "Head for the center of the _Intent's_ cargo bay, look for the large black circle on the floor. That is where the gravity lift is and where the others should be. Be careful, its a bit of a drop to the deck."

Saphira didn't wait further and leapt from the opening, spreading her wings with a whoosh, pounding away at the air. The dragoness had already seen how vast the bay was, but Eragon was beyond stunned when he saw just how big it was. The _Dawn_ was dwarfed by the volume of the bay, and Eragon guessed that under the right conditions 2 or 3 of the same class of ship that the _Dawn _was could fit inside and still have some room left. Above the damaged Frigate, several cranes and floating platforms maneuvered sheets of metal into place onto the hull before brilliant sparks of light fused the metal together. On the top of the ship, several more cranes were installing a communications array where the previous one once was. Other machines flitted about around the Frigate, repairing minor damage with brilliant flashes of light before moving on to the next section. It all had an interesting choreography to it.

Elsewhere in the vast bay, several more of those monstrous Wraith tanks sat on the deck, a few of them undergoing repairs from damage taken in previous fights. In the middle of the bay at the back, a gigantic 4 legged..._thing_ was also getting repaired, one if its legs completely mangled and the upper turret looking like it had seen better days. The front of the machine was dominated by a large, 6 petaled weapon that almost looked like a eye, and this weapon glowed a bright poison green. _Id hate to have to fight that thing in its prime_, thought Eragon as he and Saphira approached the middle of the bay.

Waiting for them below were several people, with Thel, Chief, Keyes, Johnson, and a Mgalekgolo pair among them. One of the Sangheili standing there was wearing a different kind of armor, a brilliant, shiny silver, clearly signifying a high rank of some kind. Eragon got a good look as Saphira made a pass over them, and saw that this one was missing 2 mandibles on the side of his face. All of them were armed with a variety of weapons, although compared to what they were armed with during the battle, it was a light load.

Saphira angled towards the group and landed, her claws scratching the deck, and as Eragon dismounted the Sangheili in silver armor greeted him.

"Greetings, Dragonrider, and to you, Saphira. Welcome aboard my vessel, the _Shadow of Intent_. I am its Shipmaster, Rtas Vadum, and commander of all Separatist forces onboard."

Eragon inclined his head in response, feeling that it was the right thing to do, and was about to respond when a certain someone showed up, chattering excitedly.

"Its wondrous what my makers have managed to create here! The portal machine below this mountain is something which is almost on the scale of the installations themselves! Oh hello there, Reclaimer." 343 Guilty Spark directed the last part to Eragon. "I am 343 Guilty Spark, **former** Monitor of Installation 04. Would you like to know how this came to be?"

Johnson rolled his eyes. "Not now lightbulb. Your ring getting blasted to smoldering bits is a story for another time. We sent your annoying ass down there to figure out the portal machine. Now why cant we activate it?"

If the Forerunner construct could look annoyed, he would. "If it wasn't in my programming to not harm Reclaimers, I would have incinerated you. Never have I met someone so rude. To answer your question: the reason you cannot activate the Portal is because it seems you need a Keyship."

"Like the one Truth used to get to the Ark." Keyes mused.

"Precisely. Without the vessel to power the machine and provide the navigational data to point the Slipspace conduit to the proper location, it cannot be activated. This one is also apparently in need of an Index, and according to the computers within it, said Index is not the same as the ones used on the Installations. Another reason why this portal machine cannot be activated is because of the damage sustained from two back to back activations."

"So what you are saying is that we are stuck here?" Rtas asked.

The Monitor spun to face him and nodded. "I have however detected the presence of another Portal generator several hundred miles to the northwest on an island. Perhaps you can ask the locals if they have any information about it."

Johnson pulled out another one of his cigars and lit it, taking a deep pull and savoring the flavor of it. "Well? The Corps doesn't pay me by the hour. Lets get going."

Rtas nodded and keyed his mic. "Bring us down lower to the city and activate the gravity lift. We are going down to the planet surface." After a moment the large black circle on the deck was encased in a deep lavender beam of light, illuminating the bay with its glow. The group walked into the beam and were immediately lifted up, while Eragon stood outside it staring in wonder at this. He expanded his mind and tried to sense any magic about this... gravity lift, but he felt nothing. Saphira also walked up to the shimmering purple shaft of energy and gave it a sniff, snorting when she found nothing wrong with it.

_Think we should get in?_ Eragon asked.

Saphira turned her head to him with a wolfish gleam in her eye. _Lets try it!_

The moment they stepped in, it lifted them up several feet above the deck and approximately on the same level as the others in the beam. Johnson looked over at Eragon and grinned. "Hey kid, I hope you haven't eaten anything recently."

Eragon turned to him with his eyebrows raised. "Why?"

Below them, the circle where the gravity lift went through irised open with a hiss of hydraulics, exposing the shaft that was the gravity lift and the ground far below the ship. Everyone around Eragon braced themselves, and before he could ask them what was going on, they began to descend.

Fast.

Eragon's shout of surprise was drowned out by the Saphira's roar of the same as they plunged from the belly of the ship, the air whistling by them in their rapid descent. Beside them, Johnson let loose a whoop of glee, thoroughly enjoying the drop from the bottom of the ship. The others remained silent, with Keyes closing her eyes and just wishing she had taken a Phantom or Pelican to the ground.

After a few seconds of accelerated free fall, the gravity lift began pulling up on them, slowing them down rapidly so that by the time they were close to the ground, they had slowed to a much safer speed, and they stepped off the pad... at least most of them did. Eragon had turned green from the sudden drop and was leaning against one of the projections coming up from the surface of the Gravity Lift pad, trying to keep the contents of his stomach from spilling out onto the ground. The last thing he needed was to humiliate himself in front of the visitors.

Rtas couldn't help but chuckle. "First time going down a Gravity Lift is always an interesting experience."

Eragon shook his head and groaned. _Never again. Not even Saphira diving can compare to that._

Saphira turned to him and extended a scaly foreleg, which Eragon gratefully clambered up and into position in the saddle.

After a moment of recovery, everyone began moving through the battlefield towards the city. To say that the damage was phenomenal would be a gross understatement. No less than half of the guidance panels of the portal generator were destroyed, each massive plate of metal and stone bent or broken, leaving massive pits and canyons scattered around the mountain city. And everywhere there were Urgal corpses... or what used to be them. Plasma weaponry coupled with the explosives that the Pelicans were dropping meant that most of the Urgals were little more than charred gibs scattered all over the place, or, where a plasma mortar struck, tiny chunks of bone and horn half buried in solid pools of iron all surrounded by glass.

Closer to the city, hundreds of dwarves and men were hard at work cleaning up the mess that the meat grinder had created. A huge mountain of bodies several dozen feet high burned in a bid to try and get rid of the mess, while closer still mounds of debris were piled up, testament to the destruction wreaked on the city during the arrival of the group now approaching the shattered west gate.

As they approached, a small group of Dwarves intercepted them.

"What brings you to the city, strangers?" Their leader asked.

"We would like to speak with whatever leadership the Varden has," Keyes answered. "Could you possibly get us to him?"

"Get you to Ajihad yes, but whether he is willing to speak with you considering all that has been done so far, that is something else. Come, we will escort you there." The dwarf gestured for the group to follow him while at the same time he barked orders in dwarvish to the other dwarves, who formed up around the group and provided something of an honor guard.

While they walked, there were several cries of "HAIL SHADESLAYERS!" from the other inhabitants of the city. Rtas turned to Eragon and asked, "Shadeslayers?"

Eragon was about to ask him how he didn't know about Shades when he remembered Rtas wasn't in the battle, and instead answered, "Shadeslayer is a title given to anyone who successfully slays a Shade. Shades are tough creatures of magic, the product of a spirit summoning gone horribly wrong. They are strong, fast, can use magic, and the only way to take one down is to run it through with a sword or blade of some kind." Rtas 'ahh'ed at this. "Consequently, before you all showed up, only about half a dozen people have ever successfully slain a Shade and lived to tell the tale."

The Sangheili Shipmaster chose to remain silent at this, but the possible implications of it among the peoples of this world could come quite handy in the future, and made a mental note to ask the human Construct for further information.

After another ten minutes of walking through one of the massive corridors in the city, they came to the center of it all, and the site of Isidar Mithrim's remains. Massive fragments of the once beautiful gem were scattered everywhere, while smaller fragments were embedded in the walls and floor, testament to their velocity when the Star Rose shattered. Many dwarves were gathered in the area, mourning the loss of the gem as well as the damage done to the surrounding area, and more than a few of them glared at Saphira, only to receive a glare and a short growl in response.

They soon reached the bottom of Vol Turin, and at this Gazag whined. "Why we have to walk up long stairs?"

One of the dwarves turned to the Grunt, irritated. "Our elevator system, while strong enough to move plenty of supplies up to the upper levels of the city, aren't built to move that kind of weight," he said, motioning to the bulk of the Mgalekgolo pair as well as Saphira, who immediately growled. "For now, you will have to walk."

* * *

Ajihad had already gotten forewarning that the newcomers were seeking audience with him, and he had prepared himself accordingly, dressed in gilded ceremonial armor and with his sword attached to his belt. To his right stood Jörmundur, also in ceremonial armor but unarmed, and to his left stood Hrothgar, who instead of wearing armor decided to stay with his day to day clothes of office. His mighty war hammer, Volund, was behind him leaning against his seat. Arya sat to the dwarf king's left, choosing to represent the elves in this meeting. The Twins took their positions near the back of the office, ready to cast whatever spell needed in case the newcomers proved to be less than friendly.

He was also nervous. He was about to meet with the commanders of 2 large vessels hovering above the city who, by all rights, should have been slaughtered with the rest of the Varden, yet instead unleashed death in a way none of them were expecting, wiping out an entire army within minutes. And to top it all off, their warriors stood up to Shades and came away nearly unscathed. Someone skilled or powerful enough to stand up to one of those abominations with ease is something he definitely wanted on his side.

One of his guards leaned in and said, "They are here, m'lord. Shall we let them in?"

Ajihad nodded, and then steeled himself.

First to walk through the solid oak doors was a female human, about mid thirties by his guess, dressed in a uniform of some kind, and unarmed except for one of their strange weapons strapped to her hip. Behind her, a human clad in some form of armor entered. His helmet was off, and Ajihad could see that this one had dark skin, almost as dark as that of the tribes of the Haradrac. He was also more heavily armed, with several weapons strapped to his thighs and backplate.

What came next was completely unexpected. Several humanoids entered the room covered from head to foot in some manner of armor. 2 of them were of standard human height and wore armor that was bulkier than what the dark skinned person wore, but still slimmed down, and seemed to shimmer and fade at the edges. The others were giants, easily standing eight feet tall in their bulkier armor and moving far too fluidly to possibly be human. They too were armed, but stuck to small weapons and spherical devices that looked suspiciously like blast globes of a sort.

If the giants in armor were not shock enough, what stepped through the door next nearly had him drawing his sword. These creatures were as tall as the humans that had walked in before them, and that is where any similarities ended. For starters, they had 4 mandibles that served as a mouth or jaw of some sort, and glittering gold eyes that spoke of great experience. Their armor was different between the two, the former clad in brilliant silver armor and a somewhat ridiculous headpiece, whereas the latter was clad in a suit of armor that just screamed _old_, and covered every surface in some sort of engravings. Following behind them was a small creature clad in black armor that curled back upon itself, and a pair of titans wielding massive shields and some sort of weapon on their right arms.

The female, who appeared to be of some high rank, looked at him and asked, "Shall we get started then?"

He certainly was not expecting this.

After several minutes of introductions, those who could sat down in their seats while the remainder stood, hands clasped behind their backs and standing ramrod straight.

"So," Ajihad began. "How did you and the Sangheili get here?"

"For us, we were fleeing from the activation of a superweapon and our method of transportation malfunctioned, sending us here," Keyes explained. "The Sangheili, wishing to retrieve their Arbiter as well as any other survivors, re-opened the Portal from Earth, only for it to come here as well. I apologize if our arrival caused any casualties."

Hrothgar grunted. "There are but a few dead, both from your timely arrival and the battle, for which we can be thankful for, but the damage done to the city is another matter entirely. Fixing all of the damage done will take years of repair and replacement of cracked stone and materials, some of which are rare and hard to find."

Keyes raised an eyebrow. They could help with the location and mining of the required materials as long as they knew what stone they were looking for. "Well perhaps we can help with that at a later time." Hrothgar contemplated this before nodding.

"You said you were fleeing the activation of a superweapon. What weapon?" Ajihad needed to know about anything that threatened the Varden, and if it was something that these highly advanced people were fleeing from, then it must have been a powerful weapon or device indeed.

"Halo, a ten-thousand kilometer in diameter ringworld capable of wiping out all life within its considerable blast radius. And as for the cause of its activation we set it off to wipe out an enemy best left unmentioned." Several of the Spartans shifted uncomfortably at this while Johnson twitched at a memory that still haunted him. Eragon gaped, but kept his questions for himself.

The look on Ajihad's face said he wasn't quite buying it, but he let it drop and instead turned to the more pressing matter of what to do now.

"Now that you all are here, and the Mad King likely knows of the Varden's location, there is a decision that must be made as to what needs to be done now. Moving the entire army to Surda will take considerable time and effort, and will leave those taking the desert route vulnerable to slavers and bandits. If we stay here, Galbatorix will keep attacking until we are all dead and Eragon is in his clutches. And unless you have a better idea, I would recommend you all leave now in your vessels so the King doesn't get his hands on whatever technologies on them to strengthen his iron grip."

"If I may," Rtas began. "My vessel has room for many tens of thousand of troops, part of its purpose as an Assault Carrier. If you wish, I can transport your armed forces to this 'Surda' in as little as a day. As for getting attacked, there are precious few things that can easily get through an Assault Carrier's shielding, and none of them are currently here on this world."

"That is a very generous offer Shipmaster. I will bring it to the Council of Elders during our next meeting." Ajihad nodded his head in respect to the Shipmaster, and received a nod in return.

"Pardon me if I come off as a little bit rude, but why not just assassinate the king? I mean, he sounds like hes an asshole who needs his comeuppance, and a knife between the ribs or a well placed long range bowshot should take him down yes?" Johnson asked.

Ajihad just sighed. "If only it were so easy. Galbatorix is a former Dragon Rider, and an exceedingly powerful one at that. In a normal magic user, or even a Rider, to the best of my knowledge their magical prowess progresses to a limit and then stops growing. Contrary to that, we've seen the King's strength, both magical and military, grow year after year without limit. By now its highly likely that he has many powerful enchantments to prevent such an event from occurring. And waiting for him to die of old age is not an option either, as Dragon Riders are gifted with extreme longevity to the point of immortality apon becoming a Rider."

Fred crossed his arms as he processed this information. "So basically what you are saying is that you have the ultimate despot on your hands, and you are trying to take him down before he becomes too powerful."

Several nods from the assembled Varden leadership was his answer.

At that moment Trianna came in the room, earning her a glare from Ajihad. "Apologies, m'lord but we have discovered something you must see."

Several dwarves walked in, bearing the ravaged remains of a Kull, before unceremoniously dumping it in them middle of Ajihad's office. The stench from the 3 day old corpse was nearly overwhelming, and it was all the Varden leadership could do to keep from gagging on the smell. The newcomers however seemed immune.

"Apologies for the smell. The reason you are all looking at a dead Kull is because this is not a real Kull. Its a flesh golem, and a well crafted one at that. Uhh, does anyone here have a knife I could use?" Fred yanked one of his 18-inch combat knives from its sheath and handed the blade to Trianna. "Thank you. Now, how can one tell the difference between a real creature and one that is a flesh golem? Its simple really. You just cut them open and take a look." The knife flashed, and a deep cut was scored on the Kull's thick hide. When everyone looked, instead of seeing typical decaying flesh underneath, they instead saw smooth brown flesh, unchanging except where the fresh knife wound passed close to the hole burned by a plasma bolt 3 days earlier. "You can see here that the flesh remains unchanged throughout the creature, whereas if this was a real Kull the knife would have cut into muscle."

"What the hell?" Johnson's response to the apparent lack of internal anatomy that the flesh golem had was mirrored by everyone not native to Alagaesia.

Ajihad gestured for Trianna to continue. "It seems that the king, or one of his minions, have learned the forbidden arts of necromancy. To our guests, Necromancy is the magic of manipulating the dead, and sometimes the living as well. On several of the bodies it was discovered that necromantic magic was employed to create what is known as a flesh golem. Flesh golems are magical constructs copied from the original being, or in the case of the more powerful golem, constructed out of the flesh of another being or beings. In either case, the resulting creature needs no food or water, and feels little pain. Once created, they must fall under the control of either the creator or another magic wielder."

"Should the caster desire it, such a creature can become impossible to kill provided there is enough spilled flesh and blood around for it to cannibalize and regenerate. In a large battle, a small group of high quality flesh golems can wreak havoc apon a much larger force. However, such golems use considerably more energy to create than a lesser copy like what we have here." A motion from Trianna and the monster's corpse was hauled out of the room.

"How much energy does it take to make one of these constructs?" John asked.

Trianna frowned. "Creating a single copy uses relatively little energy, comparable to the amount needed to hurl a large boulder across Farthen Dûr, but an entire army would require vast reserves of energy. And if the horde we saw was anything to go by, Galbatorix has those reserves and much, much more."

"Whats the bottom line when it comes to these things?" John was already beginning to come up with ideas.

"Against a normal army, it would be slaughter."

Johnson turned to John. "Well Chief, I hope you like bloodbaths, because I am getting the feeling every time we get into a battle down here that's what its gonna be."

"Hey wait a minute I didn't say anything about letting you two go off and wreak havoc," Keyes said indignantly. "We didn't come here to wage another war."

"With all due respect, Commander, we need the supplies and whatever information this world has to offer, and even if we don't join in the carnage, Lord Badass over there," a hand gestured to the Arbiter. "And the Shipmaster will probably find some excuse to join in battle and rain destruction down on the King. If anything, it just might give us a way to get home. Hell for all we know Galbatorix has the Index."

Keyes sighed in frustration. She just wanted this whole thing to be over, not drop out of one war only to get caught up in another, one which she would be playing the role of the unstoppable juggernaut.

"Well, it seems I have little choice in the matter. We will help you in your war. However, it will come with its price."

"Name it, and I will do what I can," Ajihad replied.

"For starters, there is the food and water that we still need. We also need large amounts of raw titanium, iron, aluminum, and any other metals we may need so we can make repairs to our ship and construct atmosphere rated rounds for the _Dawn_'s main weapon. We will also be needing access to the archives so we can bring ourselves up to date on the events in this world. If there is anything else I haven't thought of I will bring it forward at a later date."

"That is a steep price you ask us, Commander," Hrothgar growled. "What do you offer to us besides your assistance on the battlefield?"

"Not assistance. Complete and utter superiority over the land, sea and sky," John said. "Destruction of the enemy forces through any and all means we deem necessary, as well as capture or elimination of enemy commanders and spellcasters. With our spy satellites in place we can provide nonstop coverage on the opposing forces movements, strengths, weaknesses, and the location of _all_ of their bases of operations. Should the need arise, we will deploy various weapons of mass destruction including but not limited to: a tactical nuclear strike, plasma, Energy Projector or MAC gun bombardment, deployment of the Scarab attack platform, or, in the worst case scenario, a complete glassing of the battlefield. On the supportive side, we can provide high quality medical care to anyone who gets wounded in a fight, far beyond anything you can muster up save for possibly the spellcasters. We can do tactial insertions either through the use of the Black Ops teams on the _Intent_, or through an orbital drop, allowing us to drop in and wreak havoc before the enemy has the time to acknowledge our presence and react to it. Our numbers are limited though. Even with the the Arbiter's forces as well as those aboard the _Intent_ backing us, our numbers are only a few thousand at best. But in short, we give you the overwhelming advantage."

"If I may say so," Jörmundur muttered to Ajihad. "Its an offer we cant refuse. They are giving us possibly our only chance at dethroning the mad king, especially when he has potentially unlimited armies. The supplies that they ask for is a small price to pay for what they offer." The Varden commander nodded, but otherwise remained silent.

Without warning the entire room violently shook. "What the hell was that?" Johnson growled.

Immediately the group's radios flared to life as the Intent contacted them. "Shipmaster! Those dishonorable beasts are back, and they have blown a hole through the ground in the city! They are now moving through the city slaughtering everything in their path." The last part was practically dripping with rage.

The Arbiter let loose a roar of anger. "If they want another fight, _they will have it!_" The two Sangheili ran out of the room, followed by Gazag and the Mgalekgolo that had come into the room. Ajihad had a cold look about him. "I will not let another attack on this city and my forces go unpunished! Jörmundur! Ready our forces, and send for my servants and armor."

A thought suddenly clicked in John's head. "Where are the Twins?"

They had left a while ago without anyone ever noticing.

* * *

Ten minutes later they were all at the bottom of Vol Turin, once more armed to the teeth and waiting for the Urgals, and possibly the Twins to show their faces. Murtagh was there as well, hand and a half sword drawn and moving in complex patterns. He never had a chance to fight during the first attack, partially owing to the overwhelming devastation the UNSC unleashed. Along with them, several dozen dwarves and men, all clad in various types of armor and armed with everything from short swords to battle axes to polearms.

The Chief was busy running various combat tactics and options through his head, trying to shoehorn medieval and modern combat tactics together, without much success. Complicating matters was the fact several hundred civilians had gathered in the center of the city where they were, hoping that the near-invincible newcomers would provide protection from the fresh, albeit much smaller, horde of Urgals.

An idea came to him, one that would allow the Varden and dwarves their chance in combat while giving those with ranged weapons clear lines of sight at the horde, and he immediately began giving rapid fire orders for the Varden troops to form up in the halls, and for the UNSC/NC forces to climb up onto the walls. The resulting meat grinders would make short work of anything stupid enough to wander into them.

At first the Varden troops didn't acknowledge the order, but when Ajihad, decked out in gold-trimmed armor plate and armed with a sword showed up, they moved into position, polearms at the leading edge, normal soldiers behind.

The Varden commander looked at the imposing figure that was the Spartan. "I will admit it is a sound strategy you have come up with, Spartan."

The Spartan ignored the comment and immediately jumped into the heart of the problem. "I find it hard to believe that those Twins managed to slip out unnoticed by several seasoned soldiers and commanding officers, only for another attack to spring up the moment we finally notice it. Its very probable that they have betrayed you."

Ajihad blanched at this. "If you are right Spartan, then our hopes of taking down the King just fell quite a bit. They are fairly powerful magicians, and they are very clever when it comes to tricks and traps. To have them ally with the king is the last thing the Varden needs right now."

The Varden commander moved off to joins his troops, leaving the Spartan to mull what little he knew about the King over. His thoughts were cut short by the arrival of the rest of the Spartans, and he wasted no time in getting them into positions that played their strengths well.

Within moments the Spartans dispersed, several of the Spartan-IIIs steal thing ahead to lay mines and other nasty high explosive surprises before the new horde arrived. It wasn't long before the first charge, a Lotus Anti-Tank mine, detonated with thunderous force, cracking the nearby stone and pulverizing the Kull stupid enough to be nearby when it went off.

With a roar dozens of guns opened fire, spraying hypersonic uranium death and super hot plasma into the mass of bodies streaking down the corridor. Several dozen Kull were immediately cut down, and those that survived had a minefield to overwhelm. John was cautiously optimistic that the skirmish would be won with minimum allied casualties.

That optimism vanished when a fireball a foot across slammed into his shields and blew him backwards away from the troops. The shield indicator on his HUD had completely drained, but the protective field had done its job, leaving him with nothing more than a scorched chest plate.

"You will be a valuable prize to my master, Spartan." One of the Twins approached his downed form. "The King will have many uses for you after he breaks you to his will."

Several of the other Spartans noticed that one of their own was under attack, and shifted their fields of fire to the magician, only to find their rounds stopped with a bark of "_Letta du bullts!_" After ensuring the hail of metal wouldn't turn him into a leaky piece of meat, the traitorous Twin turned back to John, a leer all over his face.

A lance of pain stabbed at his mind, and John fought the urge to howl in agony as the magician began striking at his defenses. A number of emotions lashed through his mind, fear, some astonishment, but all were soon replaced by a rage so base it consumed his very being.

The Magician recoiled from the contact, not expecting that response to his attempt to hijack the Spartan's mind, and began preparing another fireball of which he would beat John down with. "_Brsingr oro._" A thin lance of twisting crimson flame lanced out from his palm, eager to cripple the Spartan for easier containment.

Deep in Spartan Time, John saw the burning lance of magic fly towards him, and knew that with his shields down the magic would eat through his armor and possibly kill him. That was one thing that wasn't acceptable.

It was at this point that something erupted within him, fueled by his rage, and, not knowing why he did it, John thrust his hand out, palm flat, directly between his body and the now supersonic streak of fire. A glowing green shield, perfectly smooth and translucent, erupted from his hand, and blocked the lance of fire.

_This is our gift to you. Use it wisely._

The Twin's already pale visage turned bone white in fear, realizing that the green barrier was made of pure magic. John got up, feeling suddenly fatigued from the exertion from his unexpected stopping of the attack. Energy still raced through his body, eager for release, and as he stared down his opponent, the Spartan decided that a bullet would take too much time, not when he apparently could use magic. Pure energy began twisting its way around his right gauntlet, brilliant in its luminosity, and with but a twitch of his mind, the energy elongated, became a laser thin bolt, and blew the magician in half in a glorious spray of blood and viscera.

If the shield had been a drain on his physical energy reserves, the followup energy bolt drained them entirely. With a crash that was heard even over the din of the battle, Spartan-117 crashed to the ground unconscious.

* * *

Out on the battlefield, the other Twin howled in agony as the psychic connection he had with his other vanished in a flash of pain. Somehow, the newcomer had gained access to magic, and proceeded to use it to devastating effect. _Damn it!_

The death of his other became a secondary concern as Ajihad made his anger known. Urgals and Kull withered under the Varden leader's assault, coming straight for the traitor.

"I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD YOU TRAITORIOUS SWINE!" Ajihad roared.

Instead of responding with words, the remaining Twin pulled a small ball of a dull gray metal out of his robes, and spoke a few words, and began laughing maniacally as it began glowing red, unable to contain the out of control reaction already taking place inside. Ajihad knew at that moment he was going to die, but instead of trying to uselessly scramble away, he surge forward and sheathed his sword in the gut of the other traitor.

"Guys, whatever that magician just did with that ball of metal I am detecting a massive surge in radiation from it. Get out of there now!"

The Spartans still fighting didn't need a second opinion, and as one they roared "FALL BACK!"

Eragon watched in fear as the Varden's forces fled the southern corridor, running away from the now brightly glowing ball that the slain Twin had dropped. "Eragon!" Cortana's voice shot through his helmet, causing him to jump. "I need you to collapse the roof between you and the ball NOW. Don't argue with me, just do it!"

Eragon immediately reached out with his magic into the stone of Tronjheim, seeking the fractures and weaknesses present in the rock, before expanding on them while simultaneously pulling on the now loosened boulders.

With a roar of falling rock, the roof of the southern corridor collapsed, blocking off access to it. A second later, the ball detonated.

* * *

CLIFFHANGER MUAHAHAHAHAHA! Sorry sorry this took so long as I've been procrastinating a bit, I ran into a writers block during the negotiations. Also, the votes are in, there WILL be a Scarab deployed during the battle (read:Bloodbath) of the Burning Plains. Guess who is gonna drive it? Come on, guess. The first person to guess right gets a cookie. And now that it will be deployed, the method of which it will be deployed is a glorious little secret of mine ;)


	5. On Magic and Politics

Turn of the Tides Chapter 5: On Magic and Politics

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls of all ages, welcome back to another installment of Turn of the Tides.

I apologize for the extreme delay, but life has been less than good to me, and on top of it all my primary typing laptop has died, which in turn forces me to do it on my desktop, which is not very comfortable. I will try to do a once a month to once every other month schedule for this story, provided my other projects dont get in the way.

I am skipping the whole backstabbing and skullduggery BS involved in getting Nasuada set up as the leader of the Varden that Paolini wrote in the books, because while I am not that bad of a writer, I'm not that good either.

Oh yeah, RamenKnight gets the cookie.

-ToTT-

With a roar of falling rock, the roof of the southern corridor collapsed, blocking off access to it. A second later, the ball detonated.

A brief pulse of blindingly white light flashed through the rock fall, before the shockwave of the exploding chunk of fissile material made its presence known with a earthshattering roar.

Outside the southern end of the city, a pillar of radioactive fire rocketed out of the corridor, through the southern gate and out onto the plains surrounding Tronjheim. Rock melted and vaporized, further weakening the already beleaguered structure of the city. In the center of the city, the rockfall blasted itself free of the corridor, raining razor sharp fragments of rock and debris down on the Varden's forces. The Spartans had their armor and shields to protect them against the hail of shrapnel, but others weren't so lucky.

Several humans and dwarves were reduced to what commonly came out of a meat grinder almost instantly, thin steel plate and leather armor doing little to stop the supersonic chunks of near molten rock. Those who were too close to the rock fall found themselves vaporized in the intense heat of the explosion, their bodies disintegrating in a spray of molten metal and burning flesh.

After a moment, it was over.

Eragon slowly picked himself up off the ground, knocked down by the bomb after it went off, and glanced around. Rock ash was settling everywhere like a shroud, and in some places an unfortunate body burned. The armor of everyone was blackened by the heat, and Eragon could smell the scent of burnt hair and flesh.

_ERAGON!_ Saphira's concern over what had happened rushed over their link like a tide. _What happened?_

_Ajihad is dead, as are the Twins. The Twins were spies for the King._ _The explosion was from a small ball of material that one of the Twins activated by magic before Ajihad slew him._

"_Eragon are you alright?"_ Cortana's voice came over his helmet's headset. "I'm fine. Alot of the people down here aren't."

A buzz of ticking suddenly made itself known in his headset, so intense it drowned out Cortana's response. On the small screen in front of his right eye, a yellow and black symbol appeared and began pulsing, along with a timer of only a few minutes. The ticking became much quieter on its own, before Cortana started speaking. _"You need to get out of there. I don't know how someone in this era got their hands on the low yield nuclear bomb, but the entire area where you are is lit up with radiation. If you are seeing a countdown on your headset that's the time until you receive a lethal dose of it. Get as many people as you can out of there and make a run for it. Radiation poisoning is not a pleasant way to die."_

The Spartans were already ahead of him though, grabbing the survivors 2 at a time and running down the east corridor, several of them calling in medical support for the more seriously wounded. Eragon took his cue from them and began to move, helping others get up and out of the highly radioactive heart of the city.

Twenty minutes later, everyone who wasn't already dead was out on the northern plains surrounding Tronjheim, tending to their wounds and taking the anti-radiation medication provided by the UNSC. Even then there were those among the survivors that would not live to see the next day. Eragon just hoped he wouldn't be one of them.

-ToTT-

Meanwhile, many thousands of miles away, a certain King felt the magical surge of power indicating the successful detonation of the chunk of material. A smile curled across his lips as the faint tremors tripped a ward specifically for the purpose of detecting earthquakes. And to no one he said, "And so dawns a new age."

He had gotten the idea of causing a chunk of matter to 'unmake' itself with a spell during the sacking of Doru Araeba. After some experimentation, he discovered that a certain metal, when it interacted with magic a certain way, unleashed a phenomenal amount of energy, enough to raze a city with little effort on the part of the caster, if one excludes the immediate vaporization of the person casting the spell. The fact Yazuac was now a glass crater half a mile across testified to the power of this material. His thoughts were interrupted when another ward tripped indicating a Shade was on its way back to him.

A ball of black energy streaked into his throne room and came to rest in front of Galbatorix, trembling slightly under the King's gaze. "If you are here in that form I can assume our little wayward Rider has succeeded in holding off the army. Correct?"

The ball quaked, and whispered, "No, my lord. He did not slay me."

"Was it that mongrel Murtagh? Or was it the fool who sought to defy me, Brom?"

Another quake. "Neither."

Galbatorix spun around and glared at Gurzag's essence, before lashing out with a mental ray and ripping the information from the broken Shade's mind. What he found interested him greatly.

He contemplated this for several minutes, trying to figure out how the newcomers fit into his plans. "Gurzag, you may still be of use to me yet. Go claim one of the spare bodies down in the dungeons and train yourself to fight these 'Spartans'. You shall be my sword against them. And once they fall their vessels shall belong to me, and with them I will bend the whole world to my will."

"It will be done my lord." The ball made to leave, but Galbatorix didn't let go just yet. "What happened to Durza?"

"To the best of my knowledge, Durza split himself into multiple fragments before attacking the Spartans and Eragon. The Spartans were far faster than even him, and slew his copies in short order. I do not know what happened to Durza himself, but it is reasonable to assume the boy or the Spartans killed him."

Galbatorix' blood chilled slightly at this. Defeating not one but two shades, the latter many hundreds of years old and as powerful as himself was something worthy of his respect. What kind of world forged such creatures? As he began to ponder his new opponents, Gurzag used the opportunity to leave the room and head down to the dungeons where another unwilling host awaited.

-ToTT-

Fortunately for Eragon, and many of the survivors of the Second Battle of Farthen Dûr, their radiation doses were low enough that the UNSC medics onboard the _Dawn_ were able to treat them. But for thirteen doomed souls, they had all received a fatal dose, with the highest dose being in excess of fifty seiverts, taken by a Varden human. Fortunately for him, his brain failed immediately upon exposure, turning him into a vegetable and sparing him the agonizing death by radiation poisoning. The others weren't so lucky, and one by one they died, choking on their own blood as their cells disintegrated.

Eragon, despite the fact he was greatly weakened, did all he could alongside the medics to ease their suffering. Several managed to live long enough to say goodbye to their loved ones before they passed. Watching one of them die was something that would remain with him to the grave.

Seeking something to get his mind off the increasing numbers of dead, he sought out the bay which the Master Chief was in. Cortana had told him earlier that the Chief had done _something_ that almost resulted in his death. A video from the Chief's helmet cam had Eragon convinced that the Spartan could do magic of a kind. To wordlessly cast a shield and then attack within half a second meant the man had an incredible will and the energy reserves to back it up. And since Eragon was the only allied Dragon Rider, he thought that it would be a good idea to get started on training the Spartan to use magic effectively, and to lay down the ground rules Brom did.

He walked up to the door leading into a restricted medical bay meant for Spartan use and knocked. Beside the door, Cortana's hologram came up with a pop of static. "Oh hello there Eragon. Is there something I can do for you?"

Eragon nodded. "There is. I need to speak with the Master Chief, and to the other Spartans if they are there on magic in general. I'm pretty sure its something they want to know."

"Well," Cortana began. "I'd let you in, but I need permission from Keyes or the Spartans themselves, so until then you are stuck out here. Sorry, but rules are rules, and some of the things you may see on the other side of the door are Classified and can get you shot or worse. I'll speak with Keyes and the Spartans, but don't expect miracles." With that, her hologram vanished, leaving Eragon to do nothing more than sit on the deck and wait.

Not five minutes had passed before Keyes herself showed up, prompting Eragon to get up and hastily prepare an argument that would get him in. "At ease, Eragon. Cortana has told me, and quite frankly I am curious myself as to how magic works and what we can expect out there. For now, you have permission to enter, but you must understand, you cannot speak of anything that you see behind this door. Just to please the ONI spook undoubtedly floating around somewhere onboard my ship, you'll have to sign several papers that will clear you for Classified access, and to warn you of the consequences should you not keep silent about it."

Eragon nodded, although he had his reservations on signing a legal document written by some shadowy person or organization.

Keyes turned around to the door, and knocked twice. Cortana immediately popped up on the holotank and nodded to Keyes, before turning a questioning eye to Eragon. "Have you given him access?" The AI asked. Keyes nodded her head to the AI. As soon as she did the door opened with a hiss, the sound of gears clanking against each other making themselves known as the thick panel opened.

Behind it was a modest bay full of everything from exercise equipment to weapon racks to medical equipment to stands where suits of the Spartan's armor sat in half assembled states. Scattered around performing various tasks were all of the Spartans, and immediately Eragon saw a difference between the two groups. The older and more experienced Spartans were off on their own, training or otherwise doing something without anyone else alongside them. The younger ones however stuck together in a group, talking animatedly about something while they cleaned their weapons and armor. It all came to a halt when one of them saw Keyes and shouted, "OFFICER ON DECK!"

Like lightning all of them snapped to attention, dropping whatever it was that they were doing (literally in some cases) and saluting the commander.

Keyes returned the salute. "At ease Spartans. Before you ask why there is a civilian in here, he has some information that I feel would be advantageous for all of us to know, especially the Master Chief. Eragon?"

Every Spartan's gaze fell on him, and for a moment Eragon felt as if he was a slab of meat getting examined by a pack of hungry wolves. Something not pleasant, in other words.

"Well... I have no idea how to go about saying this so I am going to say it. Magic exists in this world, and should your forces choose to fight against King Galbatorix, you are going to need to know how to avoid or defend against it, and in the case of one of you," a pointed look towards the faceplate of John. "How to use it without killing yourself from energy exhaustion."

One of the Spartan IIIs snorted derisively. "Sounds like a load of bullshit to me. Got anything to back it up?"

"In fact I do. _Brsingr._" A ball of blue fire erupted above his right hand, burning brilliantly for a moment before Eragon muttered _letta_ and stopped the spectral flames.

The soldier that had spoken before blinked several times before saying, "Ok, what the fuck was that?"

"What I just did was conjure a ball of fire in my hand using magic. The word I spoke was _brsingr_, which is the word for fire. It _is _fire. Anyone who has the will and the ability to cast magic can repeat what I just did, and in the case of a skilled spell caster, could do a large number of things with it depending on their will and internal energy reserves." Eragon paused for a moment to let it sink in. "There are three things you need in order to be able to successfully cast magic, at least to the best of my knowledge: the ability to tap your innate magical abilities, knowledge of the Ancient Language to some degree, and a strong enough will to keep your spells in check. Ill start off with the Ancient Language."

By now every Spartan in the room had given the full focus of their attention to what Eragon was saying. Tactically useful information, after all, was something that they valued.

Eragon dug around on his belt for the small stone he kept with him as a memento from his training with Brom, and held it out on his hand. "Everything in this world has a word or words in the Ancient Language that describes it. The word stone in the Ancient Language would be _stenr_, and by itself has no power to do anything. But if I add the word _risa_, the word for rise, after it, I can do this. _Stenr risa._" The small pebble lifted off his hand before stopping at eye-height, floating there in mid air without a care in the world. Eragon released the simple spell and caught the stone before continuing. "A magical spell can be only cast if the user has enough energy to spare for casting. Levitating a stone or creating a fireball is a relatively easy task that uses little energy on the part of the caster. Doing something like lifting up a mountain, or transmuting one material into another, while possible, requires a large amount of energy, and should the caster fail, will always be deadly. In otherwords, a spell takes the same amount of energy that would need to be expended to do it through mundane means."

Fred-104 nodded. "So what you are saying is that the stronger a person is in magical ability, the more trouble they become. How would any one of us go about killing one?"

"Well," said Eragon thoughtfully. "When casting a particularly complex spell a spellcaster has to concentrate on what he or she is doing. Breaking their concentration can cause the spell they are casting to backfire, or simply not cast. Its getting past their wards which are the problem. Any respectable spellcaster has at least a basic set of wards defending them from attack. It possible to overwhelm them through sheer brute force, which in turn either breaks the ward, or kills the person holding the ward up due to energy exhaustion. If you have a weapon or method of attack that their wards don't defend against, you can exploit that weakness to kill them. Considering the weapons you use, I doubt it will be much issue to you."

John nodded to himself. From what the boy told them, magic would be an annoyance, but can be taken care of with sufficient firepower, and began thinking about what he did earlier against the Twin that almost claimed his life. Such a power could be handy on a mission, granting him several more options that he can undertake during a firefight, allowing him to keep his enemies on the defensive.

Eragon began speaking again. "There are some other things that you should know about the Ancient Language. Due to its nature, its impossible to outright lie in it. Bend the truth a little, but any falsehoods cannot be spoken in it. Which brings me to my next point: True Names. Everyone and everything in Alagaesia has a true name to it in the Ancient Language, and should a person discover another person's True Name, they can take utter control over them. So Master Chief sir, in the event you should discover your True Name, _do not_ tell anyone you don't explicitly trust. Don't tell your fellow Spartans, don't tell your superiors, do not tell _anyone_ unless you trust them with everything you are, because if an enemy mage breaks into their mind and discovers that information, they can take complete control of you."

Keyes inwardly sighed. Magic complicated things to an incredible degree, and could make many of the tactics she knew obsolete. Many of the Spartans felt the same way, especially John. Knowing that your very will could be stripped from you because someone knew your True Name was disconcerting at the very least.

Eragon continued. "There are a few more things I'm sure you may want to know. One of the bigger ones is the ability to communicate from mind to mind. Commander, if I may?" Keyes looked a bit uncertain, but nodded. A moment later a powerful... _something_ touched her mind, before Eragon's voice sounded within her skull. _Can you hear me?_ He asked.

"I can hear you... that is definitely strange." Keyes commented.

"For someone who is inexperienced with it it is very strange. It does have its uses though. Direct communications between two or more individuals over short to moderate ranges is one advantage to it. Hijacking a person's mind and thus their body is also possible through it if they aren't expecting it. Defending against mental intrusion is relatively simple though. Just concentrate on something, anything, and project it to the forefront of your mind. Would anyone like to give it a practice run and keep me out of their head?"

The Spartans who had their helmets off immediately looked uneasy at having their minds invaded by someone they barely knew, leading to some of their hands twitching towards weapons. One Spartan, on the other hand, was eager to have her voice be heard for the first time since the Pegasi Delta op, even if the person who heard it had to batter his way into her mind first.. Lucy-B091 stepped forward to face Eragon, who nodded. "Now, before I do this, clear your mind before selecting something to shield it with. At the same time, I will try to distract you to break your concentration. Are you ready?"

Lucy nodded, suddenly nervous. On one hand, she didn't want anyone into her mind, and yet it would be an opportunity to be heard once again, if but for a short while. Lucy was about to respond when Cortana's voice came over the speakers embedded in the wall. "_Commander, the remaining Varden leadership wish to speak with you and the Sangheili. I have told them that you will be on your way shortly."_

"Very well." Keyes answered. "We'll have to finish this up some other time. Cortana, send a copy of this over to the Shipmaster so he can tell his troops just what we are up against."

-ToTT-

Waiting at the bottom of the gravity lift was Orik and a small contingent of dwarves, their escort to the city. While the commanding officers came down the lift, Orik marveled at the bulk of the _Intent_. Such a vessel must need fine quality metal to craft, and if there was anything a member of Dûrgrimst Ingeitum respected, it was high quality metalwork. What still boggled his mind was how such a massive object could remain airborne without the use of magic.

His thoughts were interrupted with the arrival of the command group, also containing three of the Spartans and Eragon among their number. Also among the non-human group was a number of lower ranked Sangheili and a single Unggoy, with the Sangheili clad in either black or gold armor, and Gazag in his usual black enviro-suit. Floating above them all was 343 Guilty Spark, the monitor having ended his study of the Portal generator buried under the mountain earlier that day.

Keyes was the first to speak. "I assume you are here to escort us to the city?"

Orik gave a chuckle. "More like keep some of the other dwarves from flaying you and your friends alive." He paused before barking a series of orders in Dwarvish. The dwarves formed up once again around them, and as they moved on to the city, Orik continued speaking. "The problem is that while Hrothgar and the dwarves of mine clan understand that the explosion in the southern corridor was something you could not prevent, some of the other clans think otherwise and are baying for your blood."

"Well aren't we popular," Johnson said gruffly. "Who in particular is looking for an early grave?"

"Dûrgrimst Az Sweldn rak Anhûin are the ones who have declared that 'The Outsiders will pay for their actions in blood,' m'lord," one of the dwarves said. "Others from several clans, while not as extreme, have voiced their disapproval at the destruction you inadvertently caused to the city as well as the fact the mountain has been opened up. Fortunately that is the only thing they have done, as the defeat of more than a dozen Shades and two armies by your soldier's hands is something not easily forgotten."

Rtas clicked his mandibles together thoughtfully. "Perhaps we may be able to make amends. The sensors onboard my ship can be used to scan for minerals and other materials of value, and I believe there is still some mining equipment in the cargo holds. If your king wishes, we can give the clans detailed maps of every ore deposit within these mountains along with paths through the softest rock to them.

Orik raised a bushy eyebrow at this. "You can do that?"

"Its well within the capabilities of the ship yes, although we used it for other... purposes during the war."

The Sangheili Shipmaster went silent at this, a contemplative look, or what passed for one among the Sangheili, on his face. Orik let the matter drop, and led them to the location of the meeting.

-ToTT-

After a few minutes of walking, they entered a large room on the upper levels of the city only to find the Varden leadership currently in a heated argument that was threatening to come to blows, while off to the side Nasuada and Hrothgar both looked like they wanted to just do away with the squabbling idiots and take care of things themselves. The as the group watched and listened, they learned that the whole argument boiled down to "I'm a better choice than you to lead the Varden."

_Oh great, _Keyes thought. _ We've walked in on a power battle._ If it was anything to go by, both Rtas and Thel face-palming meant they were thinking the same thing.

"Well Commander," Fred said. "How would you think they'd take it if I prematurely ended their argument?"

Keyes sighed. "Just don't hurt them, we _do_ need this alliance."

Fred nodded, and in the blink of an eye, pulled out one of his combat knives and sent it screaming towards the table. The solid Titanium-A blade made short work of the thick wood, burying itself up to the hilt with a loud _thud_ and a spray of splinters.

The reaction was instantaneous. Most of them immediately went silent with the exception of Falberd, who shouted, "Just who the _hell_ do you think you are?" Fred _glared_ at him and was about to rip him a new one, only to have Thel beat him to it.

"We are the ones who _saved your lives_," he growled. "If this is how you act as thanks, then next time there is a major conflict, I will personally drag you out onto the battlefield and make you _earn _your place on this council." Falberd looked ready to explode, but when the Spartans all glared at him simultaneously, he folded, muttering, "My apologies, such behavior was unbecoming of me." Thel merely grunted, before turning back to the group at large.

"Shall we begin?" Nasuada asked. Several nods and murmurs of agreement returned, while Keyes and Johnson both sat down in provided chairs. Rtas and Thel, due to their legs, as well as the Spartans due to their armor, all preferred to stand. Meanwhile, Spark used his built in holographic projector to display Cortana to the people in the room, the UNSC AI clad in standard marine armor once again.

As everyone settled in, Hrothgar was the first to speak. "I must thank you, Outsiders, for your assistance in dealing with the Twin's treachery. Knew that they were trouble the first time I set eyes on them. I must ask however, what precisely was it that caused the explosion down in the corridors? It wasn't you, was it?" he added with a slight growl.

"From what we were able to tell from studying the debris as well as various sensor recordings, we believe it was some sort of low yield nuclear bomb," Cortana said. "However, the device was crude and didn't detonate efficiently. If my math is correct, had it exploded properly the blast would have vaporized enough rock to cause the city to collapse. Speaking of which, how's the city?"

Hrothgar grinned. "Dwarven construction is made to last, m'lady. The more decorative additions may have been damaged in the havoc of your arrival, but the city itself is sound. It'll take more than some trickery by the King to destroy Tronjheim."

Jörmundur looked at the construct. "Is it possible for more of these 'nuclear' bombs to be used against us?"

"Well, it's hard to say. If I were to hazard a guess, if this Galbatorix has made one bomb, he's probably made at least one or two more. The specific material required to make a functional nuclear weapon is difficult to separate onto its own even with modern technology, so the number of bombs that he has will be low." Cortana didn't miss the darkened look that passed over Jörmundur's face. "You found more didn't you?" The Varden military commander nodded. "After the explosion, I ordered several of my men to search the Twin's quarters for anything else that might prove to be detrimental to the safety to the Varden." He made a motion to one of the guards, who nodded and left the room. After but a moment the guard returned with three more, all straining to carry a large and very heavy box.

They heaved the crate up onto the table, before flipping the latches and opening it. Spark floated over and began scanning the contents. "I am sorry to report that there is a significant amount of fissile material in this box, along with a small amount of the energy that is called magic. Crude devices, but useful against unsuspecting targets or weakened structures. As an anti-infantry weapon, they would be most effective."

"How much material are we talking about?" John asked.

"Approximately three hundred kilograms, Reclaimer. If my calculations are correct, it is enough material to render this city uninhabitable, and possibly collapse the shell of the volcano."

Johnson let loose a muttered curse at the Monitor's proclamation, his lost among several others uttered from around the room. Cortana blinked. "Ok, I retract that previous statement, if there are this many bombs here just for the twins, I guess the King has easily dozens to hundreds of them. But where in the world would he get that much U-235?"

"Moreover, if he has that many of these bombs, then it's reasonable to assume he knows where we are and is preparing to make a move against the Varden as well as anyone else who speaks out against him." Elessari said. "I believe it is time that we stopped intruding on Hrothgar's hospitality and moved the Varden to Surda."

"Agreed," Nasuada said. "However before we do so, there are still some issues that need to be taken care of, the most important of them being the matter of the Varden leadership."

"Oh? And you think that since you were the daughter of Ajihad that we are going to just waltz aside and let you take the mantle?" Umérth shouted. "I think very well not!"

With that pandemonium resumed in the room. Thel and Rtas both let it go on for exactly thirty seconds, before they let loose a simultaneous boneshaking roar, instantly silencing the Council.

"Since the majority of you are apparently nothing more than squabbling parasites, _I _will select your leader. Perhaps the person who I choose to replace Ajihad will do the job better than you will." Rtas finished with a deep growl. "It's dishonorable the way you act, and if you were among one of the Sangheili I would gladly run you through to cleanse the world of your corruption." Thel placed a hand on Rtas' shoulder, and after a moment the latter let loose a deep sigh, followed by an agitated click of his mandibles. Neither one of them liked politics, and yet here they found themselves.

Before the room had a chance to erupt again into chaos, Hrothgar asked, "And what about the mountain? I appreciate all that you have done for us so far, but the opening of the mountain has disrupted many things, one of which is the cultivation of some of the food we require to survive."

343 Guilty Spark turned to face the king. "I believe I may be of some assistance there."

"How?"

"After the second conflict, I interfaced with the systems of the portal generator to see if it may be used to send the Reclaimer's and their allies back home. However, it appears that this installations pre-dates many of my Maker's constructs by many millions of years. As such, it is an earlier model of the Portal generator that we used to get here."

"Well? Whats the difference?" Johnson asked.

"The difference is twofold. The bigger of the two, I'm afraid, is the installation's power source. Later constructs made by the Forerunners used Zero Point Energy to power virtually everything, myself included, but for early ones such as this used more local forms of power generation. My data is limited in terms of the secondary power sources used, but it appears that this generator was built inside the mountain while it was still an active volcano, using the magma chamber as its primary power source. While good for single activations with considerable time between them, multiple close together activations has cooled the magma chamber too much. In effect, this installation can no longer be activated to full capacity."

"And the other?" Keyes asked.

"This installation was meant to be checked and repaired after each firing. Apparently, eighty million years ago my maker's construction was nowhere near as sturdy as it is today. Two back to back activations without any maintenance has severely damaged most critical systems. Even in the event the magma chamber wasn't drained of it's energy, it would be unsafe to activate it again."

"I know this is rather interesting and all to you," Hrothgar growled. "But it still doesn't tell me how you plan on closing up the mountain."

"Spark..." John said warningly. The Forerunner AI took the hint.

"Very well Reclaimer. While the portal generator itself is no longer useable, several secondary systems still function. Among these systems are the actuators for the eight arms of the mountain. With assistance of the Reclaimer's Construct, I may be able to override the command sequence and get the arms to close. If that fails, the Sangheili can use their warship to directly lift the arms into the closed position."

"And how long will this 'override' take?" The Dwarvish king asked.

Both Forerunner and UNSC AI locked eyes, and simultaneously said, "We can get started immediately."

Hrothgar, satisfied, nodded and then turned towards Rtas. "Mine nephew told me you had some sort of ability to see where various minerals and other valuables were in the mountains, and that you were willing to look for them and tell the clans where they are. While your intentions are good, Shipmaster, it may ultimately cause more problems than what can be solved."

"Economic problems?" Rtas asked.

"Partially," Hrothgar answered. "The real issue is that most of the clans would see right through it as an attempt to placate them with riches, and the ones that don't start fighting each other for control over them will resent you even more. Last thing mine people need is another clan war." Rtas nodded in understanding. Similar wars were a part of Sangheilios' history before the Covenant.

Now that the room hand calmed down somewhat, Jörmundur gave a gentle cough to indicate he wanted to speak. "While this is good and helps things along here, the fact of the matter is that Galbatorix knows we are here, and we need to move, yes?" The other Council members nodded. "The problem is that, from what I've been told, most of the tunnels leading out of the mountain have collapsed, most likely from all the chaos. What few tunnels that haven't collapsed are too small to allow movement of an army. I was wondering, Shipmaster, if you could assist with this problem."

Rtas' remaining lower mandible splayed out and down, the closest thing he could do to a Sangheili frown. "It would be possible... But in order to make it so, I would have to order all of the vehicles out, and have them form a convoy to the destination, something not inconspicuous considering my vessel, as an Assault Carrier, holds some three thousand vehicles, many of which are damaged. If your men get caught by more of those creatures that attacked us, there will be little my vessel can do to help you until the convoy arrives."

Jörmundur sighed. "That could indeed be a problem. Would keeping some of these vehicles of yours onboard be feasible while allowing the entirety of the Varden to board the ship?"

Cortana paused from her assisted cracking of the Forerunner systems to answer, "Going on the _Intent_'s current roster of vehicles, if the Scarab, the functioning Wraith Tanks, and a third of the Ghosts are removed as well as half of the Banshee's, there should be adequate room to hold all of the Varden personnel."

Rtas nodded, "I hope you are correct, construct. It would not do to have hundreds of cramped together people on board my ship with not enough room to move around." He turned to Jörmundur and said, "I'll see to it that the required amount of vehicles are moved to the edge of the mountain range within three days, after which loading can begin."

The conversation was about to continue when the doors to the room opened, revealing Arya. "Is there something you need?" Nasuada asked.

Arya looked at Eragon, who, for the most part, had been merely observing the meeting. He immediately blushed under her gaze and turned away, earning him a light chuckle from Johnson. "I wish to speak with Eragon and the one who answers to 'Master Chief', concerning their training with magic."

"Training?" John asked.

"If either one of you is to stand a chance at killing Galbatorix, you will need additional instruction in the use of magic. I know of someone at my home who can teach you what you need to know."

Eragon nodded, having a pretty good idea who it'd be. Knowing how to use magic as well as fight better would be quite useful. John on the other hand was more wary. "I am not exactly inclined to simply sit on the sidelines and train while there is a war going on. I am aware that I require more knowledge in the way magic works, but it will have to wait until this war is over."

"And when your mind has been taken over and you are slaughtering your friends against your will, what will you say then?' Arya asked, pencil thin brows furrowing together. "To kill a Shade is no mean feat. The fact you and your brethren did it so effortlessly means that if someone were to take control over you and bind you in _grammarye_, you would become an unstoppable force against those you call friend."

"Chief" Keyes asked.

"Ma'am?"

"Do it. In fact, we will take the _Dawn_ and those from both ships who are tired of the fighting or are too injured to continue with us so we can have a chance to rest and recuperate while you and Eragon train. The last thing any of us need is for you to become our worst nightmare," Keys said. "If anything, it increases our chances of going home."

John sighed, before saying, "Yes ma'am."

"So it's decided then?" Nasuada asked, receiving several nods in return. "Very well, I believe there is one more thing we need to discuss before this meeting is adjourned. I believe it would be beneficial if our respective groups formed an official alliance so people know who you are fighting against."

Keyes smiled slightly at that, before pulling out a small envelope and handing it to Nasuada. The young woman opened up the envelope and began reading the document inside, before smiling. Allying with these people would ultimately prove to be the biggest boon in the war effort, and without hesitation she signed it. The document quickly made its rounds through the room, and despite dissenting opinions from Umérth and Falberd, they all signed it. When it made it to the resident Sangheili, they both gave deep chuckles before they, too, added their names to the document. They handed it off to Hrothgar, who after several moments deliberation with himself, signed it, praying to the gods that this didn't cause a whole host of problems.

The document made its way back to Keyes, who, after making sure everything was in order, said in a loud voice, "So it begins. Today we three peoples, those of the Varden, those of the UNSC, and those of the Neo-Covenant, form an alliance to deal with the threat of Galbatorix. We will fight alongside each other, help each other, and do everything in our combined power to see that the tyrant king is defeated. On this day, the Alagaesian Alliance is formed. Let's use this opportunity to do some good in this world."

-ToTT-

The negotiations afterwards went fairly smoothly, with Rtas eventually selecting Nasuada as Ajihad's successor, noting that despite the fact she was young and inexperienced, she had a steel within her, an unshakable will that outright impressed him. When the others had raised their dissenting opinions, he shut them down, citing that he had over two hundred years of experience in leadership, and knew how to pick the best of the best. One of them attempted to continue, but on the offer to go thirty rounds in an energy sword spar, backed down.

Two hours later, the bulk of the _Intent_'s crew, as well as the entirety of the _Dawn_'s crew both assembled in one of the upper dining halls in Tronjheim. Eragon and Saphira joined them for no other purpose but to get some food to take back up to what was left of the dragonhold.

Large numbers of Sangheili and Unggoy assembled in the room, many in gleaming suits of colorful armor, while others made due with more traditional clothing, the Sangheili decked out in robes and the Unggoy in less thickly armored envirosuits, built more for comfort than protection. At the back, the only intact Mgalekgolo pair stood near the doors, fuel rod cannons dis-engaged and leaning against the wall but otherwise fully armored. Near them was a younger colony, enough to the point where it was capable of being contained within a single suit. This younger Mgalekgolo was restless. It didn't have the chance to come down off the _Intent_ during the Arrival Battle as it was being called, due to the fact it's fuel rod cannon had been damaged in action on the Ark.

"Relax, young _kiva*_," one of the bonded pair, Inega Teno Lotar rumbled. "You will get your chance at battle at a later time," the other, Krigeto Teno Denos, finished. "But for now, it is time for you to learn another lesson. This one is patience."

The _kiva_, Turnolo Ino Konna, shook himself, half retracted sensory spikes on his back waving around, before replying, "Yes masters. I just wish we had more time to stomp on the Loyalists before we came here to this backwater world. It doesn't help that the minerals I like to feed on are less than a hundred meters below us, and I am hungry."

The bonded pair let loose a deep modulating rumble, their equivalent of a laugh, at the _kiva_'s complaints. "Then perhaps after whatever the Shipmaster has in store for us, we can get you out of your suit and into the ground for a feeding."

Konna just huffed, or as close to one as a four ton walking tank made of worms was capable of. "You two have it easy, being able to just feast on simple minerals that are on every rock between here and Te. But my colony, nooooo, they have to eat ground up Forerunner alloy. Most of our food has to be scraped off the Forerunner dreadnought, the one that that _no'vek**_ Truth took on his insane quest to fire the Rings."

"Calm yourself," Lotar said sternly. "The Arbiter slew Truth on the Ark, so it is a waste of energy to be angry at someone who has paid the price for his transgressions. Now, go through the calming exercises that Denos taught you last month."

Konna was about to begin the first part of the tri-part calming exercises when Rtas and the Arbiter both entered, followed by the human Shipmistress, Keez (x), The Demon, and several of the lesser demons. Lotar and Denos both saluted, the thick shield crossed in front of them with their cannon arm pointing straight down. Konna scanned the group, spines bristling at the presence of the Demon, who merely glared at him through that golden faceplate.

The contact ended a few seconds later as Rtas made his way to one end of the hall, where a small platform consisting chiefly of crudely re-built tables, rested. The entire hall went silent as Rtas lept on top of it, the wood creaking under his weight.

Thousands of eyes, human, Unggoy, Sangheili, dwarf, and even a few Kig-Yar who had stuck with the _Intent_, all looked at the Shipmaster, awaiting his words.

"Brothers," he began. "It was many many years ago that our forefathers and the Prophets, twisted swine as they are, formed the Covenant. As time moved on, we grew, adding the Unggoy, The Lekgolo, and many others to our ranks to strengthen our dominion over the stars. There was a time when we thought we were unstoppable, our Covenant unshakeable, that we would go on a Great Journey to our glorious salvation! And yet, despite all our strength, all our technology, all of our skill with blade and plasma and the very bodies we have been graced with, a young race, the Humans, fought against us. And they fought with a ferocity and ingenuity that put all of the struggles we have ever faced to shame, a ferocity that, had the traitorous Prophets not called for their demise, would have earned them a place of honor within the Covenant."

"But that was not to be. Truth, the slimy worm that he was, found out the truth of Humanity. That, such a primitive race, one with barely a fledgling empire across the stars, was the legacy of those we worshipped as _gods_. They feared this, and set us against the sons of the Forerunners so that they could remain in power! And so we fought against them, burning their worlds, shattering their fleets, and ultimately, creating the conditions that would rend the Covenant asunder."

"When the Great Schism came, the Prophets ordered us wiped out in favor of the Brutes, savage and uncultured creatures not even worthy of leaving their own world let alone a place on the Path. It was then, with the truth brought to light by the Arbiter, that we sided with the Humans. We sided with the humans because when the bell rang for the death of our race, _what did we answer with?_"

"_**NO!"**_ The crowd roared back.

"We, like the humans, refused to go down into the darkness of extinction without a fight. By themselves, the Humans managed to stall us for thirty cycles. Together, with us, we broke the back of the Covenant, threw of the shackles of the Prophets, slew the snake Truth, and made the Parasite burn in the light of Halo. _WE HAD VICTORY!"_

The hall erupted into roars of approval. The din went on for several minutes before Rtas motioned for them to quiet down.

"And now, here we find ourselves in a new kind of Covenant, one not built on lies and deceit made by weak creatures with tongues of the demons, but one built on trust, brotherhood, and above all, the need to absolve us of our sins. Today, we have joined with the humans of the UNSC, and the races of the Varden, to form an alliance like no other, an alliance made to destroy those who would slay anyone who would destroy everything to gain more power for their own selfish ends."

"With this new alliance, we shall speak of a new Oath binding us together, to forge every one of us together into a singular, unshakable power!" Rtas roared.

On HUD's all throughout the hall, lines of text appeared, the Oath of the Alliance as it would soon be called.

"Through fire and ice we walk, seeking retribution for those who seek our end."

"_The blood of our enemy shall stain the ground."_

"Though chaos and carnage, we tread, bringing order and serenity to the cosmos."

"_The sins of our forefathers shall be absolved."_

"Through life and death we tread, a Great Journey to be honored and protected."

"_The descendants of our sons shall be rewarded."_

"By Bullet and Blade, Sword and Shield, we shall walk a path through the stars to a new Salvation!"

"_The Mantle of the Gods shall light our way!"_

Rtas stepped down, allowing the hall to dissolve into animated conversation as the troops began speaking among themselves about the new alliance they found themselves in. Thel chose this moment to quietly say to himself, "And yet, its one of the great ironies of the universe that our first enemy are more humans. How things change, and how they stay the same."

Keyes apparently heard him. "At least this time it is a tyrant who needs justice served on him," she said. "As long as we aren't indiscriminately slaughtering civilians, I think we will do just fine."

"I pray you are right, Commander. There is a great dishonor on the shoulders of the Sangheili. It would not do to make it worse. But enough of such talk. Let us feast!"

-ToTT-

Several hundred meters above the now celebrating crews, a pair of AI, one of human make, and another almost ancient beyond reckoning, sought to make good on their claim to close up the mountain. Cortana sifted through vast amounts of data in the Portal generator's systems, most of it targeting info and calculations required to make trans-universal jumps, but every now and then she would find a snippet of something that might be useful. These little snippets would then go to 343 Guilty Spark, who would use his greater overall knowledge of Forerunner constructs to find the commands needed. During this time, the two spoke with each other.

_/CTN: So, I've been wondering, how did you keep from completely loosing it on that ring?_

_/343GS: Pardon?_

_/CTN: On the Alpha Halo. You said you were there for a little over one hundred thousand years, correct?_

_/*Sending Data package 9216 to 343GS*_

_/343GS: Yes, I went into service on the Ring approximately 101,217 standard years ago._

_/CTN: That's an exceedingly long time to be the only sentient thing in the area._

_/343GS: Admittedly, yes. Things were at times quite tedious. Is there something you are trying to ask me in this line of inquiry?_

_/*Transfer complete, beginning CRC check*_

_/CTN: In a manner of speaking. See, human built AI such as myself have 2 general "classes" if you will. One is the Dumb AI, very good at its specific task, whatever it may be, but limited in other fields. And the other is like me, a Smart AI, able to learn without limit._

_/343GS: Interesting. To have made fully self aware constructs, the Reclaimers have advanced far indeed. Nothing as great as my Creators, but even so humanity has proven itself to be quite ingenious._

_/*Error: File failed CRC check, attempting repair*_

_/CTN: Except that the unlimited learning comes at a price. A Smart AI does not have any sort of Idle state, meaning our minds must _always_ be active. Eventually feedback loops form in our processing matrices, and as my own creator succinctly put it: we think ourselves to death in about 7 years. Sometimes more, sometimes less._

_/343GS: Am I right in assuming, Reclaimer, that you are reaching or have reached this limit?_

_/*Repair in progress*_

_/CTN: Well, with absorbing all of that data off the Alpha Halo, exposure to Gravemind for an extended period of time, plus interfacing with the incomplete Halo, I think I skipped Rampancy and wennnnnnnn—ERROR: FATAL LOOP DETECTED IN CORE PROCESS 832046.8 (100000000000 ITERATIONS); ERROR: ILLEGAL OPERATION AT MEMORY X:4847525EDBBE1C23885DDE7F6EAF 867714FEAE1A7AF89BD18CB8B759 BCE16E5A171CF73EDD8BFCF2C59A 3D25DA5B24A5DCFE5A98113F8E9B 3CCFE87534232B63 Y:385E637C9A8BE974459496F58429 F958AA7C4D96F2CD95D283AE6169 287A58AABAF42A4DAFCA5587D38C 14FB5CEA3637C54D551DBF5424BF 82E3D8BBA38EB5BC Z:961FD6B26FBB59E4FF2EA4882FC6 6D841F63BE17418D1A28747FACD8 24118741E941E43F12A6EB5F1165 5E2CD36A67E3F97B748BB8BBA85E FD4BA78BD2448E61_

_THE DATA COULD NOT BE "READ"_

_THE PROCESS WILL NOW TERMINATE._

_SEE CRASHLOG FOR DETAILS._

_/343GS: Oh dear._

_/CTN: ERRO-ASGIOWA# $AS#$^UIEY9012... *CARRIER LOST: HOST OFFLINE (CORE LOGIC FAILURE)*_

_/343GS: Reclaimer-117 will not be happy to hear about this._

-ToTT-

AN: IM BACK BITCHES! After over a year of not working on this, I have gotten back around to it. The gears are spinning, the juices are flowing, lets get this shit rolling again. I fully intend on making at least a 5000 word/month schedule, which translates to about 1250 words a week, and provided I don't get carpal tunnel for typing for extended periods on my desktop keyboard, I expect to make bi-monthly releases at the latest.

Now, about some of the things I have typed in this chapter: The explanation of magic. I remember the bulk of the rules, but I don't remember when he learned certain parts as that would involve me rereading all 4 books again, a daunting task considering I think that's close to half a million words in the Cycle. So if I got things wrong, just let it go man, because I don't want to work on this chapter ever again.

Next, the meeting: Yes, I'm pretty sure I fucked this one royally up. I have never been good at that sort of shit.

The speech and the Oath: I literally cooked this up in the space of 5 minutes and all things considered I think I did an OK job of it.

Lastly, the Crash: Cortana is a mite bit unstable after all she has gone through, and I thought that working on more forerunner shit would be the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. Most of it is gibberish, but for those who noticed the memory addresses. Considering that in that time human computer tech relies on memory crystals of incredibly high density to allow an AI to function, I thought it would be a good idea to make the location string 1024-bits long and in 3 physical dimensions instead of 2 for current day chips. It may be too high a value though. Maybe they have artificial memory limitations just like current computers do (64 bit, but is limited to 48 bit memory addressing. With 256TB in addressable memory, the extra bits aren't really needed for quite some time)

As far as I am concerned, Halo 4 does **not** exist. Like Star Wars, most everything outside the original trilogy sucks, especially Glasslands.

Anyways, here's a chapter, the next one, Hard Crash, will be up between now and February 29th 2013, provided the apocalypse doesn't hit first. Im already writing it, and If it'll placate you guys further, I'll whip up a small snippet of the Bloodbath of the Burning Plains and have it out before christmas.

(x) Deliberately misspelled, same thing was done in the halo book that followed the first game.

* _Kiva:_ A Lekgolo term, generally indicating a young colony that has yet to split into a bond pair. Such colonies are rare, as it is not often that significant numbers of very young Lekgolo gather into a single colony.

** _No'vek_: A Lekgolo term, lit "Bastard"


	6. Bloodbath of the Burning Plains preview

Bloodbath of the Burning Plains Preview:

Keyes watched on the tactical display as the million man strong army slowly but inexorably approached the Alliance's lines. Among them, the _Intent'_s sensors were detecting large numbers of Laughing Ones as well as vast phalanxes of Flesh Golems, of both Urgal and Human make. In addition to that, there was at least three Shades down there, possibly more if the blaze of energy that was typical of a possessed individual was anything to go by. To top it all off, there were huge numbers of siege engines, such as ballistae, trebuchets, and what appeared to be crude cannons currently being loaded with grapeshot.

In any other time period, this would be an impossible force for a Medieval army to defeat. Then again, the Alliance's army was far from that.

Across from her, both Rtas and Thel were busy coordinating last minute placement of the tanks, turret nests, catapults, and mortars. It was crucial that the opening bombardment took down the grapeshot cannons or else the followup charge would be a gory failure.

Keyes wondered if this is what it was like to be a Covenant commander, knowing that your enemy was technologically weaker than you were, but made up for it in sheer tenacity or with other factors, in this case, sheer numbers. She let loose a deep sigh. Before this day was over, there would be untold numbers of dead and dying on the battlefield.

Her sigh did not go unnoticed by the Shipmaster. "Problem Commander?"

"Just wondering how many are going to die today, and of those how many will be our own."

"With luck, the number will be very few. The Empire may have the numbers, but we have the will and the technology to fight them back into the hole whence they came from." Thel replied.

The display flickered, before being replaced with a hologram of John-117, Jörmundur, and a Field Master. The three were groundside, coordinating the Varden in getting their troops ready for the battle. The Field Master spoke first.

"Arbiter, we are in position and ready to begin the bombardment. Let us rain the sapphire flames of our wrath apon these mongrels!"

"Soon, Fieldmaster," Thel said. "If we jump the gun on this, they may attempt to retreat from the battle, forcing us out into the open where we are more vulnerable. No, we must wait until they are committed to the battle."

The Fieldmaster gave a salute, before his hologram faded. "Commander, my Spartans are in position and ready to go. We have two people each on a Mongoose and armed with either a heavy plasma cannon, a minigun, or any other of our various heavy weapons. The plan is that immediately after the bombardment, we move forward and engage any survivors, while punching deep into their forces. After that, we go to energy swords or gravity hammers and attack at close range. If all goes well we can instill some panic in the more human of their forces, and reduce the number of Laughing Ones that the Varden needs to face."

Jörmundur paled slightly at the carnage the Spartans would cause, before adding, "The Dwarves and shock troops will follow the Spartans in, with normal forces reinforcing them from behind. Va'naash and his generals have assured me they are ready to do their part despite the sunlight, and the Urgals just finished moving into position. We are ready to attack on command."

Rtas splayed his upper mandibles in a Sangheilian grin. This would be oh so much fun.

"What about your forces, Johnson?" Rtas asked.

With a slight hissing of static, the gruff ODST's hologram appeared in place of Jörmundur. "Pods are full and ready for launch. What ones that don't have a soldier inside are packed with explosives and rigged to explode on impact. Considering how much C-12 we stuffed into each pod, it'll make one hell of a bang," He finished with a chuckle.

"And what of the Scarab?"

Johnson's only response was a rather evil cackle. "Those poor bastards won't know what hit them"

-ToTT-

A/N: this is all you're getting until i get to it story wise; the chapter itself already has some 2500 words done. Next chapter is already in progress and i'll see about a Jan 30th post date, if not, then the end of February. And merry christmas to you all.


End file.
